Is use of torture legitimate?
I have received comments from a visitor to my blog that has brought up the topic of torture. I have been playing comment tag with him since. I figured I would try to explain my position on the topic in a post. The question, as the title states, is the use of torture legitimate?
When I was younger I could never understand the need to use torture when interrogating a prisoner of war. I had read and seen movies depicting the worthless use of torture for the sake of torture. This was sickening and displayed, to me, a madness within humanity. When I thought of torture I always thought of the innocent man, wrongfully accused and caught up in something he had no control over. When I thought of torture during war, I pictured the scenes from "The Deerhunter." I allowed these visions to control my thoughts about the use of torture.
During my first few years in the military I still held this belief. While discussing with a Vietnam veteran I brought up this belief he presented a simple hypothetical that I'm sure alot of people have heard. If you had captured a man who, you were sure, knew of a plan to kill your mother, what would you do to get that information? Of course I didn't like that hypothetical. What are the odds that something like that would actually happen? He reworded it. If you had captured somebody and believed this guy had information about a plot to kill your shipmate or shipmates, how far would you go to obtain the information? I still didn't like it, but his point had been made.
If providing a warm bed, meals, and prayer rooms was all it took to get somebody to spill the beans there would be no torture. All soldiers, friend or foe, are trained to resist the best they can, from interrogation techniques used by the opposing forces. In quite a few cases, a simple beating up doesn't get any information. Should it stop there in hopes that the plot can perchance be foiled? Should lives hang in the balance on the hope that the plot doesn't come to fruition?
As I am older now I have a different view on torture. Not because I believe it to be 100% affective. It is not. It may not be 50, 30, or 20% affective. If your job is to win a war and protect your comrades in arms as well as those placed under your care then you must be willing to do whatever is necessary. Allowing people to be murdered just because you don't want a man to be considered a martyr is worse than the torture that could have attained the information to save them. Allowing others to be slaughtered because you don't have the wherewithal to obtain the information, ditto.
War is not evil. Only the ideas that lead to war can be deemed evil or good. True torture, though beyond most of our full comprehension, falls into the same category. To most sane people, both these actions create a sense of shame and guilt. This is to be shared by all humanity. It is because we are human, that things like this occur. Yes, I am very cynical in regards to me and my fellow human beings. We human beings have a tendency to put other human beings into situations and decisions that they will regret for the rest of their lives. No matter if all means have been used, or if time is of the essence, the decision to torture another human being will live with the torturer forever. If he is a just man, he will spend the rest of his live trying to figure out ways that could have prevented the torture. He may even convince himself that there was a way around it. This creates an insanity that only Human Beings create and only Human Beings live with. What a wonderful creature we are.
Socialize this! 
Personalize this! 
Radicalize this!
When I was younger I could never understand the need to use torture when interrogating a prisoner of war. I had read and seen movies depicting the worthless use of torture for the sake of torture. This was sickening and displayed, to me, a madness within humanity. When I thought of torture I always thought of the innocent man, wrongfully accused and caught up in something he had no control over. When I thought of torture during war, I pictured the scenes from "The Deerhunter." I allowed these visions to control my thoughts about the use of torture.
During my first few years in the military I still held this belief. While discussing with a Vietnam veteran I brought up this belief he presented a simple hypothetical that I'm sure alot of people have heard. If you had captured a man who, you were sure, knew of a plan to kill your mother, what would you do to get that information? Of course I didn't like that hypothetical. What are the odds that something like that would actually happen? He reworded it. If you had captured somebody and believed this guy had information about a plot to kill your shipmate or shipmates, how far would you go to obtain the information? I still didn't like it, but his point had been made.
If providing a warm bed, meals, and prayer rooms was all it took to get somebody to spill the beans there would be no torture. All soldiers, friend or foe, are trained to resist the best they can, from interrogation techniques used by the opposing forces. In quite a few cases, a simple beating up doesn't get any information. Should it stop there in hopes that the plot can perchance be foiled? Should lives hang in the balance on the hope that the plot doesn't come to fruition?
As I am older now I have a different view on torture. Not because I believe it to be 100% affective. It is not. It may not be 50, 30, or 20% affective. If your job is to win a war and protect your comrades in arms as well as those placed under your care then you must be willing to do whatever is necessary. Allowing people to be murdered just because you don't want a man to be considered a martyr is worse than the torture that could have attained the information to save them. Allowing others to be slaughtered because you don't have the wherewithal to obtain the information, ditto.War is not evil. Only the ideas that lead to war can be deemed evil or good. True torture, though beyond most of our full comprehension, falls into the same category. To most sane people, both these actions create a sense of shame and guilt. This is to be shared by all humanity. It is because we are human, that things like this occur. Yes, I am very cynical in regards to me and my fellow human beings. We human beings have a tendency to put other human beings into situations and decisions that they will regret for the rest of their lives. No matter if all means have been used, or if time is of the essence, the decision to torture another human being will live with the torturer forever. If he is a just man, he will spend the rest of his live trying to figure out ways that could have prevented the torture. He may even convince himself that there was a way around it. This creates an insanity that only Human Beings create and only Human Beings live with. What a wonderful creature we are.
Labels: Torture
Socialize this! Personalize this!
Radicalize this!
