A little history less from across the Pond.
Originally shared by +Andreas Schou:
Torture: A Historical Parable
After a long history of adventurism in the Islamic world, a major world power turned to torture to fight terrorism. Initially justified by exigency, used only in response to imminent threats, it rapidly became a ubiquitous outlet for pure sadism. Its use expanded from high-value targets who were planning attacks directly on that major world power, and it was widely used in its program of extrajudicial detention, both in-theater and outside of it.
When restrictions were finally placed on generals' ability to directly order war crimes, and the world power pulled back its colonial forces, the generals staged a coup. Because, having serially committed war crimes, they could no longer be assured of the law's protection.
Torture is cancerous. Once authorized, it is rapidly institutionalized. Once institutionalized, it is extraordinarily difficult to bring it to heel.
May 1958 crisis – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The May 1958 crisis (or Algiers putsch or the coup of 13 May) was a political crisis in France during the turmoil of the Algerian War of Independence (1954–62) which led to the return of Charles de Gaulle to political responsibilities after a twelve-year absence. It started as a coup attempt led …
