My Lai Massacre Analysis

Kelman and Hamilton analyzed the My Lai massacre by studying the social process of obedience, a similar analysis can also be created when analyzing the reason why the United States tortures. The social process of obedience consist of three parts: authorization, routinization and dehumanization. Due to there higher ranked officials of the C.I.A. wanting to use torture to attain information is the reason for the use of torture by the United States. The want of the use of torture by higher ranked officials is then followed by the social process of obedience, meaning authorization, routinization and dehumanization. If it were not for other officials being obedient to the orders of following through with torture
During the process of authorization

an individual chooses to remove the need of moral evaluation because they feel as if they must comply and obey to the orders of the authorities. As told by Kelman and Hamilton, “individuals characteristically feel obligated to obey the orders of the authorities, whether or not these correspond with their personal preference.” When this occurs the individuals will continue to obey to the orders even when they know that they could be illegal. Paul Gimigliano, who is a spokesman for the C.I.A., said, “the agency’s terrorist detention program has been implemented lawfully. And torture is illegal under U.S. law.” With this claim it would be assumed that if torture is illegal, it would not be practiced, yet Mohammed said that while in C.I.A. custody he experienced treatments that were similar to techniques used during torturing. Mohammed explained that when in custody of the C.I.A. he was placed in a small cell where he was naked for several days. In the New York Times article it states, “ he [Mohammed] also claimed to have been suspended from the ceiling by his arms, his toes barley touching the ground. The pressure on his wrist evidently became extremely painful.” Torture is a thing that is overall seen as morally wrong yet because of the feeling of having to obey an individual feels as if “the situation becomes so defined that the individual is absolved of the responsibility to make personal moral choices.”, as Kelman and Hamilton explain. If it would not had been for other higher ranked officials in the C.I.A. a lot of the torturing would had not occurred because they would not feel obligated to torture because of authorization.
With routinization the task becomes a routine that it even loses it meaning. As explained by Kelman and Hamilton, “Authorization process create a situation in which people become involved in an action without considering its implications and without really making a decision.” This can be seen in the form of the want to get more information from the detainee. Once the C.I.A officials see that they can get information from the detainees trough torturing them they will not want to use any other form to interrogate them. Similar to the My Lai massacre after the soldiers were routinized to kill, is how the C.I.A. officials would feel from torturing.