Susan Sontag - 'Regarding the Torture of Others'

As has been mentioned before, Susan Sontag, in her paper ‘Regarding the Torture of Others’ raises the concern not that a few people thought that these actions were appropriate, but the concern regarding whether these actions were systemised or condoned.

Source: politicalcartoons.com

Sontag highlights that in 2002 the United States Government made any members or supporters of Al Qaeda were considered criminals, and therefore they were not protected by the Geneva Conventions – something that Donald Rumsfeld, the then Secretary of defence pointed out.  She compares the images of the abuse to the photos of lynching in the late 19^th Century and the early 20^th Century.  The images are similar in that the both portray the suffering of people considered beneath the inflictors of the abuse.  Both show the perpetrators as smiling, content, proud characters, and are considered ‘trophy pieces’.

Finally, Sontag challenges Bush’s statement that the torture these prisoners suffered was not in the nature of Americans.  She simplifies the process to that of having fun as these images were intended to be sent to others and ‘enjoyed’ as a sense of entertainment.  She uses examples of violent video games that mimic war.  This teaching that war is fun, and anything must be done in order to win, has, in Sontag’s words heightened the ‘delight taken in violence’[1].

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[1] Susan, Sontag, ‘Regarding the Torture of Others’ New York Times Magazine 23/03/2004, p. 28