Excerpted from Tortured Logic by Jesse Holcomb, in the June 2007 issue of Sojourners magazine
How many of us condemn state-sanctioned torture by day but watch 24 by night? Apart from God, probably only a few marketing firms know the exact answer…
The fact that so many viewers “enjoy” fictionalized representations of torture every Monday - with news of Abu Ghraib, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay still ringing in the world’s ears - has upset some. Gary Solis, who designed and taught the Law of War for Commanders curriculum at West Point, told The New Yorker that, under both U.S. and international law, “Jack Bauer is a criminal. In real life, he would be prosecuted.” Solis - alarmed by his military academy students repeatedly citing Bauer’s tactics with relish - entreated the show’s creators to ease off on their depictions.
And the dean of West Point, Brig. Gen. Patrick Finnegan, said he felt the show promoted “unethical and illegal” behavior, according to The New Yorker, and was unrealistic in portraying torture as working. “I’d like them to stop,” Finnegan said of the show’s producers. “They should do a show where the torture backfires.”
10-15-2007 |
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