witch-hunt

For those of you who support "truth commissions" on the issue of torture, you must provide me with some concrete assurance that it would not devolve into a witch-hunt.  As of yet, I see no reason why it wouldn't.  A witch-hunt is the exact opposite of the rule of law; it is, instead, rule of the mob.  The danger of witch-hunts, of course, is that the zeal of the mob is so strong and so unrestrainable that it ends up destroying those which it shouldn't.  Note that I didn't say "it ends up destroying the innocent" because that is only rarely the case.  Targets of witch-hunts typically aren't innocent angels; they themselves may be guilty of some sin.  Even most of the infamous Salem "witches" were guilty of something (e.g., drinking on the Sabbath, lying to investigators, being 'juvenile delinquents'), just not witchcraft.  But, in the self-righteous atmosphere of the witch-hunt, every sin is considered an irredeemibly damnable offense, and yet one more reason to "dig deeper" to find the "real truth". In this case, I think the most likely result would be that the so-called "truth commission" will end up criminalizing political decision-making.  You can say that George Bush made some poor decisions, and I'd be the first to agree with you.  But that doesn't mean he's a criminal and a traitor, and I don't see any evidence that the mob won't be satisfied until George Bush is put away for treason.  Once the mob gets going, though, there's no way to know where it will end.

If you really favor the rule of law, the answer is simple: prosecute the alleged torturers themselves using the existing law.  Not lawyers, and not politicians.  But it's the truth commission itself, though, that would be corrosive to the rule of law, because it would demonstrate that the law can be sidestepped at a moment's notice by the unrestrained passions of the mob.  Suddenly, the laws on torture would mean nothing; what would matter instead is what the inquisitors of the truth commission thought, using their politically motivated and emotional views on torture.

If you think the law itself insufficiently prohibits or punishes torture, again the answer is simple: change the law.

For you Trekkie fans out there, the TNG episode "The Drumhead" is the classic example of the witch-hunt.  It behooves a re-evaluation at this moment as this nation may soon be thrown into the abyss of drumhead trials.