2008 Woodie Awards
Drawing the line on torture (Con)
never acceptable
Ciaban Krommenhock
Issue date: 9/29/06 Section: Opinion
Torture is not right and should never be openly accepted as a form of intelligence gathering.
Even defining torture is hard. The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines torture as either "something that causes agony or pain," all the way to "punish or coerce by inflicting excruciating pain." With people in prison complaining of their "torture" at the hands of time, to prisoners of war who describe horrible acts and circumstances, it is obvious that torture has to be defined by the government. Therefore, the military knows what behavior towards prisoners is acceptable in prisons and interrogation rooms.
The 2005 defense-spending bill had an amendment to ban torture of prisoners, defined in the act as "cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment," (source: globalsecurity.org) and was signed into use by Congress and then the president. Although our government openly denounces torture as a means of getting their intelligence, the choice to do what is right is in the hands of guards and interrogators.
When the 2003 torture scandal at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad was revealed the people who committed torturous acts were eventually convicted of dereliction of duty, maltreatment, aggravated assault and battery (source: wikipedia.org). Punishing the criminals responsible for the bizarre treatment witnessed by the world was really the only retribution that we as Americans can find. Terrorists all over the world point to these events in Iraq at Abu Ghraib as another one of their incentives to kill and destroy at will. Even our government admits, in a recent leak of a top-level classified intelligence document, that the war in Iraq and events there are fueling Islamic extremist terrorist attacks around the world, according to CNN.com.
Americans were presented with a devilish portrayal of Saddam Hussein and nuclear weapons in his hands, which eventually lead our military into a pre-emptive war. America has never fought a pre-emptive war and from a critical viewpoint, the war in Iraq was not justified, since we never found the weapons of mass destruction. Many Iraqis were living normal Iraqi lives the morning "Shock and Awe" erupted in downtown Baghdad in 2003---afterwards, they were fighting for their lives as havoc ensued. These people were thrust into fighting for their homes, property and lives while many were taken into custody defined as "terrorists."
Even defining torture is hard. The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines torture as either "something that causes agony or pain," all the way to "punish or coerce by inflicting excruciating pain." With people in prison complaining of their "torture" at the hands of time, to prisoners of war who describe horrible acts and circumstances, it is obvious that torture has to be defined by the government. Therefore, the military knows what behavior towards prisoners is acceptable in prisons and interrogation rooms.
The 2005 defense-spending bill had an amendment to ban torture of prisoners, defined in the act as "cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment," (source: globalsecurity.org) and was signed into use by Congress and then the president. Although our government openly denounces torture as a means of getting their intelligence, the choice to do what is right is in the hands of guards and interrogators.
When the 2003 torture scandal at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad was revealed the people who committed torturous acts were eventually convicted of dereliction of duty, maltreatment, aggravated assault and battery (source: wikipedia.org). Punishing the criminals responsible for the bizarre treatment witnessed by the world was really the only retribution that we as Americans can find. Terrorists all over the world point to these events in Iraq at Abu Ghraib as another one of their incentives to kill and destroy at will. Even our government admits, in a recent leak of a top-level classified intelligence document, that the war in Iraq and events there are fueling Islamic extremist terrorist attacks around the world, according to CNN.com.
Americans were presented with a devilish portrayal of Saddam Hussein and nuclear weapons in his hands, which eventually lead our military into a pre-emptive war. America has never fought a pre-emptive war and from a critical viewpoint, the war in Iraq was not justified, since we never found the weapons of mass destruction. Many Iraqis were living normal Iraqi lives the morning "Shock and Awe" erupted in downtown Baghdad in 2003---afterwards, they were fighting for their lives as havoc ensued. These people were thrust into fighting for their homes, property and lives while many were taken into custody defined as "terrorists."
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Mike Lumpkins
posted 11/13/08 @ 3:52 PM PST
Okay, so i read your "con" torture shit. Here is my essay i had to write for my college class, full of facts, that will render any opinions you have against torture completely useless. (Continued…)
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