Is torture acceptable in war?

Question

Personally I dislike it. And will refuse to participate in one if given the opportunity which I don't expect. Do you think torture helps? No. It didn't work during the inquisitions of some centuries ago. And it won't work in this war against Islamic insurgents. On the contrary: many will be more resistant to cooperate with their Americans and their allies' captors. What do you think?

Answer 1

You have no idea what you are talking about. At all.

Torture is repugnant, and it is very unpleasant. In Old World societies, it is also one of the only means that works in ensuring compliance, when kindness fails.

If you've never walked the beat with Iraqi security forces, you don't know how they get their information. I guarantee what they do is a thousand times more efficient than us putting detainees up in sterile conditions and having some incompetent American interrogator ask them a couple of questons.

Granted, what they do is generally within reason: The judicious application of controlled beatings. Old World societies understand such use of violence. Americans have become so coddled that even spanking children throws them into shock and outrage. The rest of the world does not subscribe to such nonsense.

Torture for entertainment, on the other hand (Abu Ghraib) has no acceptable place anywhere.

And if you think torture never worked in history, you need to do some reading again.

Answer 2

Under the Geneva Convention which has worked for the last sixty years or so , no torture doesn't work, until attorney general Gonzales and Cheney and Rumsfeld decided to try it.

And you don't think , if the Americans don't adhere to the Geneva Convention, which they signed , that other countries will either.

And don't give me that crap that it's a new kind of war with terrorism now, terrorism isn't new, just the technology is.

Who knows the old expression you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar might apply. You show them how well they can be treated under a geneva convention controlled tribunal they might sing like canaries. Why fight fire with fire , doesn't help anyone.

Answer 3

The average person who becomes a captive is not going to have any information which is worth torturing them for. Any commander with any sense is going to have their information compartmentalized on a need to know basis. Information in a tactical sense is quickly overtaken by events and becomes useless. Even if you took a high value captive the opposition is going to rapidly change things knowing they are in your power. I do not know of a case in which discovered information has changed any major event. During the American civil war a Confederate officer lost Lee's entire battle plan which was delivered into the Union commanders hands. It did not change much of anything. It is only in bad novels were one low level guy knows were the bomb is hidden. Torture is not effective, it gives you a lot of bad press, and it is psychologically very hard on the troops that engage in it. All in All - just not worth it.

Answer 4

I hate to take a somewhat gray perspective on this, but torture is a vague term. Do I think Americans should put detainees and prisoners to abuses like electricity and beatings? No. Of course not.To do so lowers our position with the populace both in the countries we occupy and our own. On the other hand, some interrogation techniques like sleep deprivation and environmental controls could be seen as torture, but I feel they prove to be moderately effective when applied by professionals in a controlled manner.

Answer 5

I always find this subject of torture and the Geneva Convention amusing, yet a sad testament to human behavior. What are the rules of war? To shoot and kill. But then when it comes time to capturing the so-called bad guys, then the rules change. You then are supposed to have some Ms. Manners type of manual that tells you whether or not it's okay to make your prisoner stand on their head naked, or put a pillow over the head until they think they are drowning. But it's okay, to, let's say, keep them up all night, and make them sleep on the concrete floor with no blanket, or pretend that you have their uncle in the next room, with electrodes strapped to his genitals. Yeah, ummm, that seems ok. But he must always have clean socks on, and you must never say anything bad about his bible. Ooohhh, that's a no-no.

I'm against war period. But if you are going to war, don't ever lose sight of the fact that's its not a Nintendo game, where you shoot at one-dimensional cardboard characters, then go have pizza afterward. War is ugly, and is intended to inflict as much physical and mental pain and anguish on your opponent until they give up. You capture the enemy, and the fun is just beginning. There is no rule book, and it's ridiculous to think that there would be one that makes much sense or would keep professional killers from continuing to want to hurt the bad guys after they've cornered their prey. My advice to you: buy a Playstation and get a commando shoot-em-up game. It's all in fun, noboby gets hurt, and you go out with the bad guys afterward for fast food....

Answer 6

Has anybody ever noticed how little actual evidence there is that the US actually tortured anybody?

And that evidence equates 'torture' to playing music the enemy does not like?

People need to take a skeptical look at the claims of US 'torture.'

Answer 7

whether it is 'acceptable' is not really the issue as we all very well know when it comes to war.

the problem with torture is that it doesn't work. not at all.

go back to the salem witch trials - all of those who were accused who didn't confess were tortured beyond belief.

the result were all sorts of extremely valuable accounts of people flying around on brooms, meeting with various demons and all other sorts of very valuable and highly unlikely information.

nothing has changed with this regard.

torture doesn't work - it's just ANOTHER thing that doesn't work that the president and his neocon shill supporters like to do because it makes them look tough...

Answer 8

It depends on who you are. If you are an American, then absloutly not, but if you are an Iraqi insurgent, then torture is not only acceptable but encouraged, along with many other things that are against the geneva conventions.

Answer 9

NO. Torture yields bad information, as people being tortured will say anything to stop the pain.

Answer 10

Those guys who's heads were hanging from overpass were BLACKWATER thugs. Not the USA military. Private mercanaries in the Bush Christian Right oil thieving brigade. Answerable to no one. Ordering our troops around. Doing what they please and breaking whatever laws they want with total immunity. Now they 'helping' the USA during Katrina, we saw how well that went...