Again, the torturers received only the mildest of reprimands, and there was little public outcry. But by ignoring the cruelties of the Irish Republican Army and the Palestinians, and thereby making the British and Israelis villains by default, the author becomes guilty of the selective blindness he decries in others. After all, the IRA has always been very good at killing and maiming the innocent. The Palestinians, too, have a long history of relying on terrorism and other morally indefensible measures to further their cause. Their crimes are mentioned only in passing.
Recent history is also a casualty.
Of course, a book cannot aspire to the immediacy of daily journalism. But one story in particular cries out for at least some analysis. On one hand, Conroy eloquently condemns torture and society's general willingness to look the other way. On the other, he summarizes a host of studies, most of them familiar to anyone who has ever glanced at a psychology textbook, to explain why torture persists and why it is so easy to ignore. Simply put, when faced with the gentlest of pressures from an authority figure, most people tend to follow orders first and ask moral questions later.