Why swine flu and torture provoke witch hunts

Witch hunts come in different guises. While MPs in the UK are being pilloried for their expenses, witch hunting in the US is taking a different form. The recent controversy about whether or not to release yet more photographs of US military personnel depicting abuse of captives in Iraq and Afghanistan serves as an instructive episode for us to study the psychology of the witch hunt.

Reversing his earlier decision to release the detainee photos, Obama justifies his position on the basis that the images could "further inflame anti-American opinion".

The anxiety on the part of US Defence Department, voiced by Defence Secretary Robert Gates, is "that the release of these photographs will cost American lives" because they would incite a backlash among extremist groups in the Middle East.

This argument is countered by the American Civil Liberties Union and other human rights groups in the US and abroad on the grounds that evidence of torture must be made public in order to raise public awareness and to act as a deterrent against further acts of torture. The witches are the ones who are trying to cover up torture.

A closer look at Obama's change of mind suggests that it may in fact be a brave decision that, paradoxically, at a psychological level, protects human rights and interests. While the ACLU is concerned to expose such quasi-criminal behaviour, there is nevertheless a danger of creating scapegoats out of the torturers and thereby failing to address some of the deeper, underlying causes that foster this kind of behaviour.

This is the psychology behind the witch hunt. We want to punish and remove the torturers in order to uproot this evil from our midst. But mixed in with our desire for justice and revenge, there is also a desire to project our sadism into the torturers and in this way to be rid of our own hatred and destructiveness. The Salem witch trials of 17th century New England were virulent attempts to cleanse society of its ills and had a cathartic, albeit temporary, effect by making the persecutors feel self-righteous and pure.

The ACLU asserts that increased awareness of the practice of torture will serve as a deterrent. This argument rests on the assumption that human behaviour can be altered through moral pressure and example. If this were really the case, we would not have the problems we have now.

Although those who order, command and commit torture are responsible for their actions, they provide a warning sign that there has been a perverse takeover in the psyche of the culture. The warning signs need to be taken seriously. But the idea that torture can be uprooted through vilification is seductive in its simplicity.

Obama's decision points out a hidden danger in this approach. The release of more detainee photographs provides ammunition for a fresh round of reprisals and plays into the spiralling witch hunt mentality.

There is, as Obama argues, already public evidence and responsibility taken for the military abuses that have been committed. The need to disclose every instance of wrongdoing can be seen as a desire for absolution and purification.

However, it may also pave the way for the US to revert to the position that torture is something done by others - by the 'foreign witches' - and is not an American activity - or not any longer.

The Iraq and Afghanistan extremists may well react out of revenge and may well rise to the provocation that they are the witches, not the Americans. If this happens, the US can then triumph by once again becoming an innocent victim - a victim who has said he's sorry, has atoned for his sins, and is still attacked by his persecutors. It may be an act of self-flagellation that provokes a sadistic response and leaves the US as a martyr of purity.

While the political left continue their rampage for full disclosure of detainee abuses, a fresh attack has been launched by the political right against Obama's intention to close Guantanamo.

The witch hunt against Obama’s policies has infected both political extremes

Last week the US Senate rejected Obama's request for funds to shut Guantanamo with a vote of 90 to 6. This decision followed the testimony of FBI Director, Robert Mueller, who claimed that nearly 14 per cent of those who have been released from Guantanamo since it opened in 2002 have been involved in subsequent terrorist activities.

On the one hand Obama is seen as trying to cover up the crimes of the US military and on the other hand he is criticised for failing to be tough enough and to protect civilians from the threat of further terrorist attacks. The witch hunt against Obama's policies seems to have infected both political extremes.

Witch hunting can also be spotted in the recent panic surrounding swine flu - another scourge to be exterminated from American soil. Significantly enough, swine flu migrated from Mexico across the border and is regarded within the US with as much fear and hostility (and perhaps hysteria) as that shown towards other migrants, such as the Mexicans themselves.

Terrorists, torture and swine flu must be contained and eradicated from the culture. Each is regarded as a foreign antibody that has invaded and contaminated a country that prides itself on the highest levels of emotional and physical hygiene.

It may be no coincidence that the widespread anxiety in the US to expunge a contagious, allegedly deadly disease, to imprison and eradicate terrorists on American soil, and to make transparent all evidence of military abuse so that there is no further contamination, comes in the wake of Obama's assertive policy of global inclusiveness.

Witch hunts invariably stem from an unconscious backlash that strives to preserve the hegemony of the past and to protect the culture from being invaded by what is perceived to be new and foreign.

Obama's attempts to encompass and engage with differences on all levels, on both foreign and domestic fronts, may be more of a threat to the American unconscious than his countrymen wish to recognise. ·