We're All to Blame for Torture

Suddenly, Democrats in Congress are calling for the prosecution of CIA agents for torture. But that torture was never a secret, and when it was politically prudent, Democrats had no problem backing it—and neither did many Americans, writes Naomi Wolf in the Guardian. We’ve all got “blood on our hands,” and prosecuting CIA operatives would be scapegoating to ease our own guilt.

“When the political winds were with the last administration,” Wolf writes, “just about every congressional Democrat fell right into line to accept it, if not cheer it on.” And “how many Americans spoke up when it was chic to thrill to the sadistic soundbite of ‘take the gloves off’?” Instead of going after the CIA agents, we must “lay the guilt where it belongs”: legally, on leaders who ordered the torture, and "emotionally and morally," on ourselves.
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