Torture and the War of Humiliation

Spiegel has a good interview with Errol Morris up, now that his Abu Ghraib documentary “Standard Operating Procedure” has debuted at the Berlinale. David Gordon Smith did the honors, and Morris is always provocative:

I would get these comments repeatedly when I was working on the movie, “Have you found the smoking gun yet? Did you pin it on Rumsfeld?” etc etc—as if that would be the only purpose for making such a movie, that I couldn’t possibly be interested in anything other than that. It’s not the only question. My co-writer Philip Gourevitch and I are putting out a book on this, and he has a line early on which goes: “The smoking gun? Abu Ghraib, if you just bother to look at it, is the smoking gun.” You don’t have to look any further. There’s a comment that my wife made that I particularly like. She’s a Joseph Conrad fan, and she pointed out that at the beginning of “Heart of Darkness” you don’t hear (megalomaniac ivory trader) Kurtz making a call to King Leopold and Leopold saying you have to treat the natives like dogs. It’s not the point. It’s an important point, but it’s not the point.

He thinks the torture scandal was just sickening thumbnail of America’s “war of humiliation.”

     posted 17 February 2008 by Michael Scott Moore

  1. Philip Gourevitch wrote one of the most haunting books I ever read, long before Hotel Rwanda. I read it during my genocide phase about 10 yrs ago, in my early 30s, when I still didn’t quite grasp the extent of human cruelty. In the book, he quotes an American official likening genocide to a cheese sandwich. Ain’t the Internet wonderful? I was able to locate that quote for you, Mike, and your dear readers, in 5 seconds flat. Take a look at Nat Henhoff’s review: http://www.villagevoice.com/news/9909,hentoff,4263,6.html
    As far as I’m concerned, anything Gourevitch does is worth seeing or reading. And I’m glad to hear he’s back on the genocide beat.

    — Katchita    Feb 19, 12:27 am    #