Torture and the Unbroken

A prisoner was taken from the field of battle, already suffering from fractures in the right leg and both arms.   Before even getting to a cell a rifle butt was brought down on his shoulder, shattering it, but he hardly noticed that after a bayonet was sent through the ankle of his already broken leg. 

            The prisoner was finally thrown on the floor of a cold, filthy cell.  He was denied medical treatment.  Things changed when they discovered he was, “well connected” with the enemy leadership.  At that time he was given both medical attention—meager but life saving—and more intense interrogation.  Over a period of two years, the prisoner was kept in extended solitary confinement; he was beaten; he was kept hungry and filthy, sometimes not being allowed to bath for months on end. 

            Over one period of four days he was beaten every two or three hours by teams of men.  His arms were trussed up behind him so the weight of his body dislocated both shoulders, permanently damaging the joints.  In the end, he tried to commit suicide.  When that failed he committed a spiritual suicide.  He wrote the confession they wanted from him.  He didn’t mean it, it was a useless bit of propaganda without any meaning or veracity, and no one of any intelligence would believe he meant even a word of it.  This was, obviously, the statement of a man at the limit of his physical, emotional and spiritual life.  

            He had already endured so much more than I could; I can not imagine the hell his captors created for him.  He had faced evil incarnate, and he lived, and he rose above it. 

            The prisoner I am talking about is the Honorable Sen. John McCain from Arizona.  He was a prisoner in Viet Nam for five and one-half years.  When his captors offered him a chance to leave the, “Hanoi Hilton” early (because his father was an American Admiral) he refused, leading to the most brutal of his beatings.  The rules of imprisonment said that you leave in the order you came and he would not allow special treatment for himself.  His injuries have left him permanently incapable of raising his arms above his shoulders.  My respect for this man goes beyond words. 

            When Sen. McCain says that torture of prisoners is a counter productive, inhumane, worthless and un-American activity I give his words more credence than most politicians.  You are allowed to disagree with what he says, but I am allowed to weigh the content of your ideas against his and make my own judgment as to which opinion is the more legitimate.  He wins. 

            I love my country, and thank God I never have to make the kind of razor edge decisions about right and wrong that our leaders do.  I have no sympathy for our enemies and wish them all a hasty trip to hell, but there is a vast sea of difference between an open field war and the torture of a captive. 

            A nation, like a human being, can give in to evil impulse.  We were wrong in our internment of the Japanese.  The Civil Rights Act corrected inequities in our treatment of minorities.  We are a nation of laws.  We might stray from them but it is the law that brings us back to a true heading.   There is no changing what has been done, but there is no defending it either. 

When you have done wrong, stop, put back on the armor of righteousness, plan to do better and, above all, keep the faith.