by Patricia Goldsmith

Torture is the ultimate act of bad faith on the part of the state, and it is, therefore, credible evidence that a state is illegitimate. Torture strips individuals of all rights, and, very often, of their lives. When George W. Bush “determined” that the Geneva Conventions no longer apply -- Alberto Gonzales, who was then White House Counsel, referred to the Conventions as “quaint” and “obsolete” -- he departed from clear, specific, and well-established norms of civilized conduct, and left military personnel on the ground to deal with the consequences. When an Afghani prisoner died from repeated, brutal kicks to his legs while shackled to the ceiling of his cell, Colonel David Hayden, a former Army senior staff lawyer at Bagram Collection Point in Afghanistan, gave his opinion that the beatings were administered in small enough doses that no one was responsible. “No one blow could be determined to have caused the death,” he said. “It was reasonable to conclude at that time that repetitive administration of legitimate force resulted in all the injuries we saw.” Individual acts of “legitimate force”?

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/May05/Goldsmith0530.htm