I absolutely have to hand it to the Republicans, they are magicians. When the Obama administration revealed the "interrogation methods" used by the bush administration I thought that there would be an uproar; Americans demanding justice for these crimes against humanity, or at least a reaction about the fact that the bush administration lied about it. Instead I hear defamation of the Obama administration for releasing the information. The cries that national security is at risk are so loud that the fact that we actually do torture, despite the fact that torture is immoral, against international law, and the use of which was denied repeatedly is completely forgotten. Not only is it forgotten, but people are actually buying the idea that we are now at risk because our torture tactics are no longer going to be effective. Does anybody out there catch the terrible irony of that statement? We should never have been using torture as a form of interrogation in the first place!!! I cannot believe that this type of argument is even being put forward, it is an insult to everything that we are trying to protect in America to say that we can only protect the freedoms that we enjoy by using such barbaric methods.
I Heard a DJ on a local radio station say something to this effect:
"I know that torture is wrong, but there is recent evidence that the methods used by the bush administration may have prevented a repeat of the attacks on 9/11, so my question is: is it still immoral to torture someone if the information gathered results in the prevention of a terrorist attack? I never thought that I'd say this, but I am starting to lean towards no."
I am saddened to see that there are a growing number of people that have taken this same stance. The fault in their logic is this; there is no chance of knowing what information will be extracted from any one victim. If it is immoral to torture someone without getting information that would stop a terrorist attack, and you can't know for sure if you will gather useful information from any given subject, then it is always immoral to torture.
Not only is torture immoral, but it is counterproductive in the type of war that we are waging. Torture is a short-sighted solution to a long-term problem. Terrorists come from extremist groups that believe that Americans are animals, selfish and violent with no moral values. So does it then make sense to prove this to them by treating our prisoners this way? Torture may result in useful information occasionally, but the long term effect is that it proves our enemies right about us; if they see us as animals then it is easier for them to kill us and feel justified in the attempt. We are fighting against a group that fight us only because they hate us; not because they think it will result in any real change, but because they believe that we deserve to die. This being the case, how does it make sense to use a tactic for getting information that only increases their hatred for us?
One defense I heard for the use of torture was that Americans love the TV show 24, which must mean that they also approve of torture. That is like saying that because I enjoyed the movie Gladiator that I approve of slavery and that hand to hand combat to the death should be legalized as sport. I also liked Harry Potter, should we open schools for witchcraft for children? Grand Theft Auto is one of the most popular video games on the market, that does not mean that the people who play it believe that the game should reflect reality. I hope that government policy is written with a better guide than what prime time shows get good ratings.
Another justification of torture has been the "ticking time bomb" scenario; the idea that there is an impending attack on America and that the only way to stop it is to get the information quickly. First of all, there is always another way. Even if there weren't another way, the memos released about the torture of detainees mentions the case of a few of the water boarding victims, one of which had the procedure done more than 200 times over the period of 4 weeks. I doubt that many situations that could be considered "ticking time bombs" could wait the 4 weeks for results.
A former US military interrogator Matthew Alexander Wrote a book called "How To Break A Terrorist" in which he described the #1 recruiting tool used by terrorist factions as the very fact that Americans use torture in their interrogations. I have posted a couple of videos of him describing this in his own words; remember that this is a man who has actually been to Iraq and interrogated detainees with much success in preventing further attacks.
