Orwell's Dilemma: Democracies and Torture

In today's Washington Post, Richard Cohen offers a good description of the repulsive tactics endorsed by our next Attorney General, Alberto Gonzalez, in a column titled "Ugly Truths About Guantanamo" (registration required, but it's free and easy).

Along the way, Cohen cites George Orwell, who I notice wrote a typically succinct and honest explanation of why lapsing into barbarism is not only a morally disgusting tactic for a democracy but also extremely likely to be ineffective. This is from an unpublished letter to the Times of London dated 12 October 1942:

By chaining up German prisoners in response to similar action by the Germans, we descend, at any rate in the eyes of the ordinary observer, to the level of our enemies. It is unquestionable when one thinks of the history of the past ten years that there is a deep moral difference between democracy and Fascism, but if we go on the principle of an eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth we simply cause that difference to be forgotten.

Moreover, in the matter of ruthlessness we are unlikely to compete successfully with our enemies. . . .As a result of our action the Germans will chain up more British prisoners, we shall have to follow suit by chaining up more Axis prisoners, and so it will continue till logically all the prisoners on either side will be in chains. In practice, of course, we shall become disgusted with the process first, and we shall announce that the chaining up will now cease, leaving, almost certainly, more British than Axis prisoners in fetters. We shall thus have acted both barbarously and weakly, damaging our own good name without succeeding in terrorising the enemy.

There are those who will argue that the best way out of what we might call "Orwell's Dilemma" as it applies today to our conflict with the extreme Islamists is to cast aside our moral inhibitions and vow to become as ruthless as the terrorists. Leaving aside moral considerations, I don't think it would work. It would take generations of indoctrination to mold American public opinion to the point where it would unflinchingly support out-and-out brutal tyranny. I'm afraid we may get there in time, but we're not there yet.