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The War Drive: IMAGE FILES CORRUPTED

The War Drive: IMAGE FILES CORRUPTED Rosalind C. Morris The scandal of torture in the war on terror has diminished noticeably since it first erupted in 2004, when photographs of a grinning young woman, poised and posed next to a nude Iraqi detainee, entered the contemporary mediascape. Already, the discourse of alternative techniques has begun to paper over the wound of torture with a veneer of academic propriety or, at least, of logical necessity. Without more new images to fill out and, as it were, enflesh the debate about torture, widespread opposition to its continuation has lost some of its vociferousness. In the end, however haunted we may be by the image of a hooded man standing as though crucified on a box, or of a naked man on a leash, or of a scrum of stripped bodies splayed for the camera, the news photograph has a short half-life and fades quickly. The recent passage of legislation permitting some forms of coercive interrogation previously thought to be torture is evidence that the restraining force of that scandal has indeed dissipated.1 For this reason we would do well to recall, if we can, our shock at that first sighting. However, the utility of this gesture http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Social Text Duke University Press

The War Drive: IMAGE FILES CORRUPTED

Morris, Rosalind C.
Social Text , Volume 25 (2 91) – Jun 1, 2007
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Publisher
Duke University Press
Copyright
Copyright 2007 by Duke University Press
ISSN
0164-2472
eISSN
1527-1951
DOI
10.1215/01642472-2006-029
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Rosalind C. Morris The scandal of torture in the war on terror has diminished noticeably since it first erupted in 2004, when photographs of a grinning young woman, poised and posed next to a nude Iraqi detainee, entered the contemporary mediascape. Already, the discourse of alternative techniques has begun to paper over the wound of torture with a veneer of academic propriety or, at least, of logical necessity. Without more new images to fill out and, as it were, enflesh the debate about torture, widespread opposition to its continuation has lost some of its vociferousness. In the end, however haunted we may be by the image of a hooded man standing as though crucified on a box, or of a naked man on a leash, or of a scrum of stripped bodies splayed for the camera, the news photograph has a short half-life and fades quickly. The recent passage of legislation permitting some forms of coercive interrogation previously thought to be torture is evidence that the restraining force of that scandal has indeed dissipated.1 For this reason we would do well to recall, if we can, our shock at that first sighting. However, the utility of this gesture

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Social Text – Duke University Press

Published: Jun 1, 2007

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