“Silence and dominate!”

Contrary to popular belief, torture does not get people to talk. Rather, even if torture does make people say things, it does not reveal the “truth” in the sense that certain interrogators, political or military leaders, or even screenwriters might imagine it would.

Doctor Duterte cites a patient who described being “forced to sign off on lies by making me believe that it was actually the truth, and I didn’t understand the point of that.” (Terres Inhumaines). « “One of the first patients I met with swore that he would have confessed to having killed Jesus Christ…” (Terres Inhumaines, p.27)

Moreover, the fact that torture itself is an atrocity makes the act unthinkable, which causes a silence to settle over those who have been tortured: in other words, the degree of cruelty is so abhorrent that the victim is convinced no one will believe it. In fact, it is used as a living testimony of what may be awaiting his or her loved ones: “a victim who is spared and set free becomes an involuntary messenger of horror…” (Terres Inhumaines, p. 28).

Journalist Naomi Klein, in her book The Shock Doctrine (Metropolitan Books, 2007) aims to situate torture within a more general context. Examining the experiments conducted by “Doctor” Ewen Cameron in Canada, she reminds her reader that Cameron’s intent was to “erase the personality” of the patients he was “treating” by subjecting them to intense electroshocks and sensorial deprivations in order to “rewrite” new values. His experiments provided the fodder for torture manuals used by the CIA (one of “Dr.” Cameron’s primary financial backers).

Naomi Klein deftly analyses the practice of torture and the recourse to “economic shock therapy.” Essentially, torture is an excellent weapon used to ensure that a country’s population consents to the total dismantlement of their economy and the loss of all its economic and social benefits, not to mention the complete dissolution of any semblance of democracy.
While this does not fully explain nor justify the spread of torture as commonly-used tactic, it allows us to see the Bush government’s policies in a new light.