Torture !

There is something unworldly in the public reaction to revelations that the American Central Intelligence Agency ( CIA ) used torture to extract information from captured al Qaeda terrorists in the wake of the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Centre.

We freely acknowledge that Guantanamo Bay is a grim place where terrorist prisoners are locked away from prying eyes on the coast of Cuba.  We have heard reports that the methods used to extract information are "harsh ", but somehow we recoil whenever someone uses that emotive word - "torture ".   " Water Boarding "and "Sleep Deprivation " conjure up images that we prefer not to dwell on, but we have this quaint notion that we are the "good guys " and our methods of extracting information from others are squeaky clean.

Unfortunately that image contrasts sharply with human nature.  We are locked in a war with a relentless enemy who is prepared to use any atrocity to further the cause of defeating democracy and imposing a theocracy on the entire world.   In their eyes, the Geneva Convention is laughable.  Enemy combatants who surrender have their heads cut off.   Women they capture become sexual pawns.  It is not uncommon for them to herd asylum seekers into the desert and execute all who do not convert to their religion.   They wage a form of total war.

Every war that has ever been fought on this planet has evoked the most basic instincts of the combatants.  There have been instances where moments of rare humanity have emerged. During the first world war, on Christmas eve both sides left their trenches and mingled together - and exchanged Christmas greetings, but the next day they were right back remorselessly killing each other.

In more recent times the news media has recounted horror stories of almost unbelievable brutality.  The slaughter of eight thousand men and boys at Srebenica by a uniformed army carrying out "ethnic cleansing "- and the mass genocide of Rwanda.   Different reasons in different countries - but this becomes a phenomenon that goes far beyond any hope of reason.

The US Intelligence Committee that has prepared the report on CIA torture is now huffing and puffing and claiming that despite this departure from our professed standards, the use of torture did not produce any worthwhile information.   That claim is probably laughable.  Al Qaeda gained a valuable victory when their surprise attack on 9/11 brought down the twin towers of the World Trade centre and killed nearly three thousand innocent victims.   They have not gained a similar victory since, and a relentless pursuit saw Osama bin Laden finally face his executioners - and his hideout delivered a treasure trove of information of value to the CIA and other security forces.

The espionage world relies on seemingly minor bits of information that can be threaded into a pattern to fit together like a crossword.  The end result is not always spectacular.  Perhaps a bomb factory mysteriously blows up and kills it's instigators.  Perhaps a key courier just "disappears "and fails to deliver a crucial message.   Sometimes bogus information is inserted into the pipeline - leading to catastrophic impacts for the enemy.   Rarely do these events get publicity - until the war is over and the history books are being rewritten.

No doubt there will be pious declarations that the CIA has reformed - and turned it's back on any form of future torture.   All the world's military components make that claim from time to time - usually after they have been caught out in a major indiscretion, but in the real world the need for information  will see business as usual.

To think otherwise is to deny human nature.   Despite the veneer of civilization that centuries of progress have bestowed on the tribes of this world, when it comes to mortal combat from an enemy determined to change our way of life and  dispossess us of treasure and the loved ones we hold dear, there is no limit to the measures we will take in our defence.

We are no more really civilized today than we were when we hunted animals for food, lived in caves and fought with spears to defend our realm - and another thousand years from now - beneath the surface those same elements will still hold sway !