Bacevich on Torture and Permanent War
Andrew Bacevich, professor emeritus of International Relations at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, shared his insights as a former U. S. Army colonel to highlight the consequences of torture and permanent war.
Bacevich’s pieces followed the explosive release of a U. S. Senate report on the CIA’s use of torture following the Sept. 11 attacks. Bacevich wrote an op-ed for the Dec. 9 Boston Globe titled “Torture report highlights the consequences of permanent war.” In it, he said:
War thrusts power into the hands of those who covet it. Only the perpetuation of war, whether under the guise of “keeping us safe” or “spreading freedom,” can satisfy the appetite of those for whom the exercise of power is its own reward. Only war will perpetuate their prerogatives and shield them from accountability…And so it has come to pass, the United States in our own time having indisputably embraced torture as an allowable practice while disregarding the rule of law and trampling underfoot the values to which the chief representatives of the state routinely profess to adhere.
You can read the full op-ed here.
Bacevich also appeared on Radio Boston on Dec. 11 to discuss the abuses of power highlighted by the torture report. You can hear the whole conversation here.
A graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, Bacevich received his PhD in American Diplomatic History from Princeton University. Before joining the faculty of Boston University, he taught at West Point and Johns Hopkins. Bacevich is the author of “Breach of Trust: How Americans Failed Their Soldiers and Their Country” (2013). In 2004, Dr. Bacevich was a Berlin Prize Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin. He has also held fellowships at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, the John F. Kennedy School of Government, and the Council on Foreign Relations.