The Torturer's Dilemma: Analyzing the Logic of Torture for Information

CHAPTER 6
CONCLUSION:
The Misleading Theater of Torture
In the preceding chapters, we have seen how torture has corrupted and led astray those states
that have made use of it. A single instance of torture, conducted by master against slave, converted a
simple Witch-Trial in Massachusetts, such as had come and gone with little fanfare or bloodshed over
the previous decades, into a spiral of denunciations and executions, as the logic of the traditional witch-
trial was reversed: whereas in the past confession meant death, in Salem in 1692 confession and
naming others held out the only opportunity to survive as one by those who held out were put to death.
In Algeria, the use of torture led the FLN commanders in the countryside to conduct a painful purge
that severely weakened their ability to confront the French – ironically, their situation was saved only
by the French army's own use of torture, which so alienated Algerian opinion, and so demoralized
French society, that the military would openly revolt against the constitutional order, first bringing
Charles de Gaulle to power, and then attempting on several occasions to assassinate him once it became
clear that he was not prepared to sacrifice France as a whole for the benefit of the Pieds Noirs as a
group. In the War on Terror, the United States' use of torture has led not only the a severe loss of moral
authority and global leadership, and given support to Islamist claims of the US as a force for evil in the
world, but also led in large part to the declaration of war against Iraq – a war which has cost trillions of
dollars, uncounted thousands of lives, and contributed in no small part to the collapse of the American
economy.
In all of these cases, we have seen how torture leads to cycles of denunciations which do not
end of their own accord, but only when acted upon by an outside force. In Salem, elites increasingly
found themselves in danger of being named by an unofficial junta of pubescent girls: only when
Increase Mather, the foremost scholar and most respected minister in New England stepped in to the
debate, armed with the latest in scientific research, was the process brought to an irrevocable halt. In
Algeria, French torture was brought to an end only when de Gaulle ended the war to retain Algeria,
while FLN torture ended only when the leadership of the purges were purged in their turn. The US
reliance on an increasing number of tortured captives led to the creation of a theory to legitimate the
136