Recently, several countries, including the United States and Israel, expressed shock and outrage when their names appeared in a Canadian report that listed countries that practice torture. What followed were the usual rationalizations about what "torture" means. Almost everyone will concede that ripping out someone's fingernails or searing him with a red hot iron would be torture. However, many argue that waterboarding, electric shocks, sleep deprivation and stress positions are merely vigorous interrogation methods. People who have experienced these techniques may see them differently, but let's leave aside the definition of torture for now and examine why it is still so widely practiced. After all, don't we live in an enlightened age?
Well, not really. What we usually call "human nature" hasn't changed much since our primate ancestors and the reasons for using torture today are pretty much the same as they were in the days of the Egyptian Pharaohs. Here are some of them:
Power
Tyrants use torture not just to extract information, but also to inspire fear in the populace and to crush dissent.
Sadism
Some people get sexual pleasure from inflicting pain on others. If a prisoner gives up information too easily, a sadistic interrogator will accuse him of lying or find some other excuse to continue with the torture. Why spoil the fun?
Hatred
There are those who would be angry if you called them sadists, but they argue that terrorists, child molestors or (fill in the blank) are so evil that they must suffer terribly and deserve no mercy. These people are really arguing that the only way to fight evil is to become evil. That's like starting a war to promote peace.
Expediency
Some folks find torture so distasteful that they hire others to do it for them so they won't have to watch. They are convinced that inflicting pain is the quickest way to get the truth, especially when time is crucial. Even if you show them data about how often torture victims will say anything just to stop the pain, those who worship expediency won't believe you. For them, there just has to be a quick and easy way to get results. Subtle methods don't interest them.
Progressive people often believe naively that, because a practice has been labeled barbaric, it will no longer be practiced. Slavery was supposed to have been abolished more than a century ago, yet it flourishes around the world and there are even documented cases in North America.
Torture too will be with us for a long time yet, unless the nature of humanity changes.
What do you think? Are there more instances of torture now than thirty years ago? Fewer instances? If so, why? I'd like your opinion.
George
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Posted by gjcondon on 2008-02-02 14:05:09 | Rating: n/a | Views: 83
The problem is that WE are in an enlightened age, the western world...the people who we are fighting are not!!! Listen, if we could get the information we need to protect us by saying "pretty please w/ sugar on it" we would. But that seems not to work. I have done alot of reading and it seems that, and do not take this the wrong way as you can see by the fact that I keep reading you that I am not so offended I stop reading/responding, Canada's people seem to be very critical of the US lately. I wonder frankly if the CN Tower was brought down and it collapsed into the former SkyDome full of CFL fans would they feel the same?? I can not remember the exact quote but someone one once said something on the order of the best way to make a liberal an conservative is to mug him.
Thanks for your reply. First of all, Canadians are not the only ones who criticize the United States and America is not the only country that deserves criticism. We're not that pure in Canada either and you'd be right to accuse us of occasional lapses into sanctimonious smugness.
However, criticizing America wasn't the point of my post. I was arguing that torture is not supported by only a few. It gets widespread approval around the world for the reasons I described.
Your remark about turning a liberal into a conservative by mugging him reminded me of the "Death Wish" movies. In each of them, a liberal becomes a gun toting vigilante after thugs do something horrible to his family. Well, if somebody slaughtered my family, I'd want to see him die a slow and painful death too, but that wouldn't mean that I was right.
The bottom line is that torture is an inefficient way to gather intelligence. However, if the real goal is to inflict pain and to frighten people, then it works quite well.
