US Torture Policy and Command Responsibility

President Bush used his power as president very effectively to pursue a policy direction that would allow and encourage US personnel to use harsh interrogation methods to obtain intelligence in the war on terror. His aides marshaled legal arguments to support his position, despite serious objections from his secretary of state, Colin Powell, and professional military lawyers in the Judge Advocate General Corps, among others. His policy direction was passed down the chain of command through Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld who chose personnel who would implement the policy, and who issued memoranda on what techniques were to be used. Civilian control of the military and political control of the executive branch are important constitutional principles upon which this nation is based; this is the way it should remain. But the Bush administration failed to heed the warnings of both civilian and military career professionals, and this led to the abuse and torture of detainees in the war on terror. The principle of command responsibility will be used to analyze accountability for these policies. 1 During the war on terror, US personnel engaged in “enhanced interrogation techniques” that at times amounted to torture. Often interrogators complied with the broad limits of interrogation policy established in memoranda from the Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice. Some of the policies justified techniques that amounted to torture, for instance, sleep deprivation, withholding food, extreme temperatures, stress positions,