The war in Iraq: how Catholic conservatives got it wrong

Commonweal, Dec 3, 2004 by Peter Dula

Neuhaus finally did address Abu Ghraib in the October 2004 First Things in an essay called "Drawing the Line Against Torture." His comments, though welcome, still strike me as problematic. Here is his opening paragraph:

   The outrages committed by Americans at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq
   justly sparked worldwide protest. Never mind that much of the protest
   was motivated by opposition to American policy or generalized
   America-bashing. We handed them the bat with which to bash us. The
   pictures of what happened and the failures of policy that permitted
   what happened will long be cited as evidence against the claim that
   America is the champion of human rights and dignity. The damage is
   grave.

Neuhaus seems to be saying that, while Abu Ghraib was a terrible thing, it isn't enough to constitute the sort of evidence needed to counter American claims to be "the champion of human rights and dignity." That raises the question, What would constitute such evidence? But his defense of U.S. intentions sits uneasily with other things he says. Rightly and unequivocally, he rejects the "few bad apples" argument, writing that the Justice Department's own Office of Legal Counsel was trying to find loopholes in the prohibition against torture as early as 2002. Thus, Neuhaus is open to, even persuaded by, the possibility that the blame for the horrors of Abu Ghraib extends high up in the chain of command (though he is clear that it doesn't go as high as the president). But if high-ranking Justice Department officials are implicated, doesn't that constitute evidence against "the claim that America is the champion of human rights and dignity"? If it doesn't constitute such evidence, what kind of evidence is it?

In Neuhaus's remarks, Abu Ghraib is treated as an isolated event, not a problem pervading the entire war on terror in prisons across Afghanistan, Iraq, and at Guantanamo. There is no sense in Neuhaus's condemnation of the "outrages committed by Americans at Abu Ghraib" that the events in that now notorious prison have wider implications for the war on terror, the competence of the current administration, and the moral character of the American people. Neuhaus says nothing about the massive random arrests or the denial of fair trials. (Such injustices fall, presumably, under "failure of policy which permitted what happened.") There is nothing about the reaction in the Islamic world, unless "worldwide protest ... motivated by opposition to American policy or generalized America-bashing" counts. Nothing about the way the photographs of torture have become virtual recruitment ads for Al Qaeda. I don't mean to suggest that Neuhaus doesn't think these things are important, only that I am curious why he doesn't think they are important enough to explore in any detail. For Neuhaus, Abu Ghraib presents an opportunity to condemn torture, but not an opportunity to think about this war.

"We dare not trust ourselves to torture," writes Neuhaus. He is right. We dare not. But we have. And so now what we need is not generalities about the evils of torture. That is what we needed two years ago when First Things was brushing off in bello questions. Now we need a long close look in the mirror and at those photographs, to see if they show the same thing.