Reflections on "An Orgy of Power" by George Gessert

     Gessert begins his essay admitting that he is not an authority on torture. However, his extensive research on torture and the undeniable gruesome evidence he provides lends strength to his voice in this essay.  Regardless of one's political leanings, the evidence of torture in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan along with the evidence that the Bush administration knew about it and condoned it, is overwhelming. The administration downplayed the evidence of torture, trying their best to soften it bay calling it "abuse." Gessert points out "we do not ordinarily call homicide abuse." (Pg. 312) There is no denying the torture memo of August 1, 2002.

     Due to the compelling argument of the author, I found it difficult to read this essay. Though he may at first seem biased against the Bush administration, the evidence of torture that he cites is so massive that the pointing of fingers no longer seems political. To me, the fact that the administration knew about these horrific atrocities leads me to believe that someone should be brought up on war crimes. I am not certain who, but there are people out there that should be held responsible. When does it become acceptable to negate the Geneva Convention simply because the prisoners of war are viewed as our enemy? When tortured, they become victims. Seemingly no one stood up for our human decency. Especially when prisoners were tortured in the name of "stress relief." Acts of this kind should have been prevented. Has anyone heard of a psychologist? There are other ways to work out aggression and anger and stress!

     Gessert points out that humans are the only living creature to implement torture: "Lions and hyenas kill swiftly. House cats play with their victims, but only to practice pouncing, not to cause pain." (Pg. 310) He wanted to believe that torture was done by a few people and not swept under the rug by the American government, but ultimately concludes that, "I realized that I did not know my degrees of separation from the tortured, or from torturers." (Pg 316) Gessert sites expert Jean Amery's opinion of torture within the human psyche, "the source of torture is our own innate drive for unchecked self expansion. If this is true, the possibility of torture will always be within us." (Pg. 320)

     Gessert begins the conclusion of his essay with a summary of his findings as it relates to human behavior: "the overwhelming lesson of history and of daily life is that human beings are capable of beautiful behavior and terrible behavior, individually and collectively." (Pg. 320) Gessert also notes that our government was structured to try and prevent such atrocities from happening and that the more partisan we become, the greater the danger of unchecked power.