Nazi-Lite: the John Yoo Torture Memo

If you are trying to draw a moral equivalence between the Nazis and what the United States is trying to do in defending themselves against Al Qaeda and the 9/11 attacks, I fully reject that. Second, if you’re trying to equate the Bush Administration to Nazi officials who committed atrocities in the holocaust, I completely reject that too…I think to equate Nazi Germany to the Bush Administration is irresponsible.”

Glad John Yoo could get that off his chest. He may rebuff a comparison to the Nazis, but what stake has he claimed in the realm of moral arguments, the man who recently argued–in public–that no treaty prevents the President from ordering a suspect’s child to be tortured by crushing his testicles? (Revcom.us has the audio of the debate.) After hearing Yoo, watch this excerpt from the HBO movie, Conspiracy:

Did you notice how the Nazis parse the horror of genocide? Yoo likewise parses the horror of torture. Yoo puts himself in the “Nazi comparison” position not his critics. Yoo is the one who forged the argument that admits torture into the realm of what the President may permit others to do. Yoo embraced the techniques of slitting noses and ears, cutting out tongues, and dousing a prisoner in acid so long as there is no intent to maim (Torture Memo 30-31). Furthermore, misdemeanor assaults can be committed on prisoners because misdemeanor assaults committed by Americans outside the United States are not prosecutable.  The fact that Yoo carefully, thoughtfully enumerates all that might happen to a suspect in U.S. custody under certain specific conditions puts him right up there with the pen-pushing Gestapo Adolph Eichmann. Yoo differs only in degree not in kind. Where Eichmann is completely morally void, Yoo may claim a single sliver of moral dimension; Yoo advises against suffering “that is equivalent to the pain that would be associated with serious injury so severe that death, organ failure, or permanent damage resulting in a loss of significant body functions will likely result.” (He even breaks out a dictionary to come up with this definition{39}). Yoo is underwriter of the abuses at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib.

I’ve read only completely the first 31 pages of Yoo’s memo written on behalf of William J. Haynes II, former General Counsel of the Department of Defense. I have about 50 pages to go. I felt compelled however to address Yoo’s resistance to the Nazi comparison. Yoo may not be equal to Eichmann; however, he is the same kind of violator of human rights. Yoo argues to subvert the Geneva Conventions and perverts justice.

Updated.