Dick Cheney and others on the far right have proclaimed that they did nothing wrong when using torture methods, because it keep America safe. They have often shielded their neoconservatives’ views by making it seem like torture was the patriotic action to take. I completely understand the argument of using extreme force in extreme situations, but making torture a law in order to try and pry information out of people on a hunch is not only unconstitutional but also un-American. I served in both Kosovo and Iraq and it discuss me that we have lowered our standards as American in recent years. To be an American means that we have certain principles that set us apart from other countries. We have fought and died for those same ideals for many centuries. I personally am not willing to continue to give a man who dodged his own military service the right to take that away from us. He should not only stop trying to justify his actions, but instead start to apologize for them.
Justin Ford
POS 2001
9:00AM M-F
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4 comments:
Many Americans say they disagree with torture being used to retrieve information from terrorists but when there are countless, innocent lives being threatened, why is there a debate? I believe that in extreme cases, torture should be used, however there need to be guidelines so the situation is controlled and only used for prevention of an suspected threat. The military isn't going around and collecting every non-American in the hopes of discovering terrorists or their plots. The individuals who are in custody are there for high reason to believe that they either took part in planning out wrong doing or know of what will follow through with the plans. Saving lives to me is a higher priority than protecting the individuals who plan on destroying them.
Sara King
POS 2001
9:00AM M-F
There are lots of reasons to debate this, Sara:
1. Does torture actually work? Does it produce accurate information? The evidence is mixed at best.
2. Does torture provide timely information that is still valid and can actually save lives? We've yet to see any public evidence to support a "yes" to this question. The Bush administration says such evidence exists, but no independent source has confirmed that.
3. Do we actually believe that people are innocent until proven guilty? If so, then, is torturing an innocent person a problem?
4. Are the people in custody guilty? Few, if any, of them have been tried, much less convicted of anything. Hundreds of people once held by the U.S. in the war on terror have been released as being completely innocent. Some of them were tortured.
5. If we torture people in order to get information, how are we any better than the bad guys? They use violence against people to achieve their goals. If we do the same thing, aren't we the same?
I am kind of in the middle on this idea of torture. It is a harsh thing to do to someone, however i think some people deserve it. It makes me mad to see people kill a lot of innocent people than kill themselves. I think that is the easy way out. Sure they go to hell or might come back as a starving abused stray dog depending on what you believe, but i would much rather see them suffor.
Terrell Jones
POS2001 M-F
12-1:15 p.m.
I think that torture is sometimes necessary. Even though there may be no definitive proof on the success of torture, if it works even once, it is worth it. I think that many of these people who are in a position to be tortured for information probably should have been killed to begin with. To torture them for information is just delaying an inevitable death anyway. As far as the ethical aspect, sometimes I think we try to uphold certain ethical standards that make us seem weak.
Randall Grant
POS2001
12PM M-F
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