For many decades this question has found its way in the minds of many leaders, presidents, and even average day citizens. This question, when answered, could lead to many horrific deaths, or many lives saved. This simple question has been a debate topic for the past 50 years and counting. Is torture ever justified? Torture has been practiced since medieval times as a punishment for a crime. These punishments were used to make a statement and strike fear into other people to make sure they obey the laws and regulations in the area. Over time, the method of torture died out because of the new court systems that were built to protect personal rights. But now the thought of torture has revived itself due to the recent occurrences of terrorist …show more content…
“Proponents of harsh treatment of presumed terrorists pointed out that, since 9/11, no attack of a similar magnitude had occurred on U.S. soil.” (Torture Debate). While torture could help keep citizens safe from things such as terrorism and nuclear war threats, it could also lead to greater internal conflicts among many of the soldiers taking part in this heinous activity. For example, before his presidency, Donald Trump stated that he is an advocate for torture and would do anything in his power to change the laws to where he could torture prisoners with no limitations to gain information about potential threats. While this may seem like a good idea, former Central Intelligence Agency director Michael Hayden speculated that if Trump, as president, orders the military or the CIA to commit acts of torture or killing of civilians, members of the military might be within their rights to refuse those orders, as carrying them out would require violating both U.S. and international law (Garvey). By refusing these rights the military would for something the believed in, but this could cause a strike, and perhaps a cause of multiple casualties. Another thing that could come from the use of torture is that if the United States uses this method, then the reputation of the “free country” would decline and then America would be seen as one of those cruel, communist countries, such as China, Syria, North Korea and Iran, that strip people of their personal liberties and exploit them in every way possible just for a bit of information (The Comic
In his essay “The Case for Torture,” printed in The Norton Reader 13th Edition, Michael Levin argues that torture is justified and necessary under extreme circumstance. He believes that if a person accepts torture to be justified under extreme cases, then the person automatically accepts torture. Levin presents weak argument and he mostly relies on hypothetical scenarios. There is not concrete evidence that torture solves problems and stop crime but rather the contrary. Under international law, torture is illegal and all the United Nation members have to abide by those rules. The use of torture does not keep people safe, but rather the opposite. Torture has a profound effect on democracy. As the use of torture becomes normal in society, the right of the citizen will suffer greatly.
Many people agree with capital punishment and torturing. Capital punishment can be used as a threat, if broken, it will be a promise. Also knowing that there is the possibility of a death sentence gives people the incentive not to commit a crime.Torture is also a very helpful method of punishment. This works in many countries s...
Torture was used quite often to get essential information if the criminal was not willing to confess (Brackett). This is one technique that is rarely used or no longer used in today’s society. Another technique that was used in the renaissance era was that if one family member was guilty of a crime, the family of that criminal would get punished along with the criminal (Muir). There was also an option for the plaintiff of a court case to pay court costs and reverse the charge on to the claimant if the claimant could not prove his or her case (Brackett). These procedures are obviously not used anymore in today’s society.
Because of the 9/11 terrorist, the U.S. have been able to limit the outcomes they produce by using physical and mental torture against their emotional torture they used on the Citizens. Its not the U.S. that started this battle over the use of torture, america had to protect itself from further hurt. “The suffering caused by the terrorists is the real torture (Jean-Marie Le Pen).” people argue that torture it is an inhumane act to deliberately beat a victim physically and mentally. The problem is that there are no other possible solutions to obtain information that are as effective as torture on such events other than force it out of them by using torture as their primary weapon (The Legal Prohibition). If the U.S. wants to pursue the safety of americans they have to take actions, As long as there are no bombs going off around the world, the U.S. will continue to use torture . Terrorism has become a much greater threat than before. regardless if the beating are too extreme, it is still the duty of the state to protect its citizens (Torture Is Just Means). Even if the interoges are suffering from severe torture, the U.S. is able t...
...less outside of intimidation. Currently we are debating whether torture would be a useful tool in society, but some have solved the answer for us many years ago. Those who commit crimes are often willing to sacrifice their life to keep the secret. Torture simply lowers us to their standards and facilitates increased terrorist activity in the long run. Why put salt on the wound when you have a Band-aid? Torturing cannot be morally justified.
Now, let’s say you do choose to torture this man, not only are the people directly in this situation going to be affected, but also the rest of the nation. We need to ask ourselves, what is going to be the true outcome? This includes thinking about how the enemy is going to react and how the nation is going to react. Torturing this man shames our nation as a whole, scars our repu...
Torture is the process of inflicting pain upon other people in order to force them to say something against their own will. The word “torture” comes from the Latin word “torquere,” which means to twist. Torture can not only be psychologically but mentally painful. Before the Enlightenment, it was perfectly legal to torture individuals but nowadays, it is illegal to torture anyone under any circumstances. In this essay, I will demonstrate why torture should never acceptable, not matter the condition.
Torture is the intentional infliction of extreme physical suffering on some non-consenting, defenseless person. Torture in any form is used to punish, coerce, or afford sadistic pleasure.
The issue of torture is nothing new. It was done in the past and it’s done now in the 21st century. Without saying one side is right and the other side is wrong, let us discuss the part that we agree on and find common ground. We as Americans want to protect Americans from harms. So how do we prevent that from happening without torturing? It is impossible to get answer without some sort of questioning and intimidation techniques, since we know captured prisoners during war are not easily going to give up information. We know the enemy we face doesn’t follow the Geneva Convention or any law that pertains to war, so does that mean we shouldn’t also follow the Geneva Convention also, which prohibits torture? Of course not, because we want to be example for the world. Republicans argue that we have to do whatever is necessary to keep Americans safe, and Democrats argue it goes against our values and makes us look bad. We as Americans, as leader of the free world we
The motivation to torture is guided by gut feelings and “what if” stories. Using torture to gain information involves a tremendous amount of assumptions. The Torturer is assuming that there is an actual danger, they are assuming that they have the correct person as well as assuming their level of their involvement and guilt in the situation, and lastly by using torture they are assuming that there is no alternative way to extract the information.
Torture, the most extreme form of human violence, resulting in both physical and psychological consequences. A technique of interrogation that has been proven time and time again to not only be ineffective but also a waste of time. Studies have shown that not only does torture psychologically damage the mind of the victim, but also can hurt the inflictor. If there is proof that torture is useless, why do we still use it? Torture should not be used to get information out of prisoners because of the risk of false information, enemy resistance and utter uselessness.
Torture can prevent the attacks resulting in terror or can go and prove no one, no one can infringe the right of Americans in the result of another attack, and therefore torture is justifiable. The similarities between ISIS and Al Qaeda is scary and torture needs to be in the back pocket of all officials to prevent similar disasters. The clock stopped ticking on 9-11, and anyone on the street can tell oneself where they were the minute they heard. The use of torture could save the lives of thousands, send the message that America is in charge, and can become more commonly accepted in the eyes of disaster. A ticking bomb could be going off at any time, it could destroy a spouse, a son, a daughter, a friend, a neighbor, or maybe the threat is to oneself, torture could get the information to destroy the bomb before it destroys one’s life. Torture is justifiable.
Over the centuries, the most common form of punishments have been torture, mutilation, branding, public humiliation, fines, forfeits of property imprisonment and death. These acts, and various variations on them
I will be speaking about the first type of legitimate domination: legal-rational authority. Weber defines legal- rational authority as, "resting on a belief in the legality of enacted rules and the right of those elevated to authority under such rules to issue commands" (Weber, pg.217). It comes to regulate rules that everyone can follow. When we speak about legal authority, we speak about laws, laws that have been enforced to maintain order in society. For example, "driving a car.
Our society is like a bed of flowers; when a harmful weed sprouts we eliminate it before it harms the rest. Criminals are the weeds, and if they are not taken care of, they will only grow in numbers and consume the rest of us. The death penalty has been a popular issue for many years. Thirty three states currently support the death penalty verses seventeen that do not (Death Penalty Information Center). There is a great deal of opposition towards capital punishment, and the most popular opposing arguments are that Capital punishment is unconstitutional, it is biased towards race and class, and many innocent people are wrongfully executed due to mistakes in the system. These arguments are false, and are cleverly constructed with the help of logical fallacy’s and rhetoric. Capital punishment should be adopted by all fifty states because it discourages crime, and is a great representation of justice, and a moral punishment.