Torture

Mark Bowden‘s article “The Dark Art of Interrogation”, explains that the “civilized world” expresses disapproval of all forms of torture. I am one of those people that personally disapprove of torture by any means, mainly because I don’t understand why others deem it is necessary. However, on the other hand, I do see how the Bush administration brought back the use of torture after the 9/11 incident as pointed in the article.

On the 3rd page of this article when Bowden says, “So what you see in the course of this article is me wrestling with the implications of torture and the current situation and what I really think about it. Like any sensitive person, I don’t relish the idea of inflicting pain on someone, or making someone miserable. But by the same token, if you can save lives – if people are plotting mass murder and you have a chance of preventing it – it’s hard to argue against whatever methods work.” This section of the article closely represents how I feel about torture and have felt about torture since the Americans were kidnapped in Iraq and beheaded while being videotaped for presentation to the world via internet and news feeds. So I guess in a sense I believe in torture if it is justified, however here we have another ethical dilemma, in what constitutes justification? What is justification for me, is it justification to others? In the beheading incidents, I think it is justifiable to Americans, as well as to all humans because that act totally violates even the wide edge of the term torture, which in one definition that is in our textbook on page 61 with, “Torture is generally understood to involve “intense pain” or “excruciating pain,” or put another way, “extreme anguish of body or mind….”

In our book, the section titled “Interrogating Detainees” sheds some light on what is being done in our prison camps, namely at Guatanamo Bay, Cuba with all the excerpts from the Defense Department, and I think most likely these are probably candy coated to a certain extent. The self-defense justification can be used in almost any incident, as we naturally will blame something or someone else to justify our actions.

Here again, I have to wrestle with what do I actually believe? I know that causing pain to others is a mean cruel act and I don’t like to be a mean cruel person. However, even though I realize that two wrongs don’t make a right, in the beheading incidents I think that I could justify the use of torture, at least in my own mind. But then, reading the comment section on page 69, the author’s write, “Some people, and not only those who reject Bentham’s utilitarianism, take absolutist stance: Torture is never justified.”