Why Jack Bauer Scares Me More Than Terrorists

Jack Bauer, the intrepid, patriotic main character of the FOX network’s hit show, 24, in the same time it allegedly took God to create the universe, has saved America (a.k.a to most Americans as “the world”) a total of six times. Why then would I be so afraid of such a true American, a man who fights for truth, justice and the American way? It is because he represents everything that is the “by any means necessary” mentality we, in this country and in others, have been taught to view the fight against terrorism.

Jack Bauer’s preferred method of interrogation is intimidation and torture.  Part III, Section 1,  Article  17 of the Geneva Convention states that “No physical or mental torture, nor any other form of coercion, may be inflicted on prisoners of war to secure from them information of any kind whatever.” Tell that to Jack Bauer, as that seems to be his modus operandi (just be careful, or he may just beat you senseless).

Now, I know what you are thinking: “Well, Sean, they aren’t really prisoners of war…those are simply ‘detained personnel’ who happen to know something about terrorist actions against America – something that we should find out, before anyone gets hurt.” That is precisely the problem.

Let’s look at the logic here:  ”Detained personnel,” by the way, is the official label given to these otherwise-called prisoners – in the same way that the Bush administration labeled civilian casualties as “collateral damage.” “Personnel” effectively means a body of persons…people, with nerves, kidneys, feelings, families, etc.  “Detained” means that they have been restrained in some way.  Therefore, since these restrained people, captured without habeas corpus under the guise of major military operations (since there was no formal declaration of war), are not prisoners of war, they are allowed to be forcibly questioned by unfriendly military forces.  Right….

“But, Sean! These are people planning on killing us! Shouldn’t we find out what they know so that American citizens don’t die?” –  a very good, albeit loaded question.  By presuming that people who do not ideologically agree with us are working against us, we presume that they know something about these assumed actions, and that the only way to illicit a response from these people is to torture them.  By that standard, anyone who does not agree with the actions of George W. Bush should be tortured – and since his approval rating in these final (blessed) eight days is hovering around 30%, they may need to find somewhere other than Guantanamo Bay to keep these enemies to America.

We currently face the worst enemy our country has ever faced – no, not the Nazi’s or al-Qaeda, but the complacency of American citizens, blindly accepting what they are told:  “It is OK to imprison people without telling them why while we build a case against them. Torture is a necessary part of attaining information, and since these people are not prisoners of war, it’s OK to torture them.  We’ll stop all this as soon as we catch all the terrorists and keep America safe.  It’s OK, see? Jack Bauer does it on TV, and he saves our country over and over again.  People owe their lives to this great public servant.”  (I hate to say it, but it’s really no wonder that this nonsense is on FOX.)

Jack Bauer is not a hero, nor is he a patriot.  Jack Bauer is a gritty, trigger-happy, mind-numbing symbol of American ignorance on a power trip.  Want a quick fact about our hero? In six days, Jack Bauer has killed 180 people.  Six days. That’s almost double the amount of the number of people killed by Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, Jeffery Dahmer and the Boston Strangler combined.  That’s more than the number of people killed in the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India nearly two months ago.  That’s 180 people with livers, kidneys, formerly beating hearts and an ideological disagreement with America. Dissent, according to Jack Bauer and FOX, can and will not be tolerated.

Terrorism only works if it inspires fear in the people attacked.  Fear is a powerful weapon, and in times of fear we turn to our leaders to guide us toward safety and security – but that does not mean that we should abandon critical thinking.  We need to be critical of our government, our media, and ourselves if we truly want to secure the trappings of liberty for ourselves and the world.