Why does America torture?

Question

I just came across a quote by George Orwell:

"The object of torture is torture" and it all became crystal clear to me.

Any nation which goes on record as "justifying" and is officially attempting to rationalize their torture is willingly embracing the darkest side of human nature.

I won't stand for it.


http://www.thewe.cc/contents/more/archive/circus_torture.html

TO ALL THE POSTERS who are saying things like "if they had my child" or "to save American lives" and thoughts along that line of thinking?

TORTURE DOESN'T WORK.

If you torture someone they will say WHATEVER YOU WANT them to say.

So..... how can you justify it?

To regerugged: YOU are the reason why I am not a Republican.

Yes, we torture. You know full well we torture. Look at the damn pictures - what else would you call it?

It is torture.

People who will look directly into the sun and stand there and tell you "It is now 12 midnight" should be locked away in a home somewhere.

Recognizing and acknowledging reality is a prerequisite for functioning in our society.

To ndgbill: In my dark moments,I wish that all Americans could be forced to be "water boarded" and then see if they believe that this practise is TORTURE."

DAMN RIGHT.

(edit: should have been quotes at the first part of your sentence I just posted. sorry!)

To "you ask" - No. YOU are wrong. Morally wrong, legally wrong, ethically wrong, spiritually wrong.

#1) It's against the Geneva Conventions, which the U.S. signed
#2) Pentagon has said over and over that torture does not work
#3) America is a nation of laws - if we do not "practice what we preach" then we are NO DIFFERENT from those we are claiming to out
#4) Defense Department/Pentagon have said repeatedly that "establishing rapport with prisoners" has provided the most reliable intelligence
#5) We have scores of people in jail, being tortured, WHO HAVE NOT BEEN CHARGED WITH A CRIME

Answer 1

Torture is just part of it. There is a huge program underway to brainwash the American people into not having any feelings or respect or compassion for their fellow man. It is working. Look at some of the statements.(in the form of questions) leveled at each other in this forum. With the bond to one another broken it is easier to promote their agenda. Divide & conquer! The attack on our civil rights,using fear, with the pretense of protecting you, is also part of it. They have successfully removed your protection from the government. (Habeas Corpus). Most people don't grasp the seriousness of this action. The rationalizing of torture was just part of the beginning of the morph of America into a totalitarian government.

Answer 2

The reason we and other countries torture is one of the identifying characteristics of human kind:

decision making clouded by emotion

overriding any sense of responsible behavior. There was a good reason we wanted the Geneva Convention. We were fighting actual countries with actual uniformed Armies. Countries (yes even our enemies) had a sense of honor and duty.

We are now involved with religious fundamentalists with no sense at all including a modicum of a sense of duty and honor.

These people have been killing each other since eg.745CE.

Why this fact was totally beyond the sorry mentality and profound ignorance of the Party of God in A-Mur-A-Ka is beyond the average imagination.

Answer 3

A common morally bankrupt rationalization/justification of torture by it's supporters is that the "other guys" do it and much worse.

This evokes memories of the two pedophiles having a heated argument about their child molestation behaviors in which one pedophile claimed the "high moral ground" because he molested a child only once a year compared to the other pedophile who molested daily.

Be it the Senators Vittars or Graig example or thousands of others ,IT IS THE SHEER MONUMENTAL HYPOCRICY ALL WRAPPED UP IN GOD,PATRIOTISM that often many find more offensive and dispicable than the issue in question.

I virtually PUKE every time I hear the majority of American speak of GOD and FAITH AND MORALITY AND ETHICS for these disgusting users/abusers always allow either their personel or national SELF INTERESTS of God and Christ etc etc to trump their Judeo-Christian moral/ethical code (89 % of Americans claim to be Christian I can already hear the moral cripples out there saying others are worse then we are).

These stinking hypocrites are totally oblivious to the simple fact that the moral/ethical Christian code they praise with their lying carciogenic mouths IS AN ABSOLUTE CODE NOT A RELATIVE ONE .

Like all the other horrid atrocities that the US has and continues to perpetrate on the peoples of the world,they torture simply because they can and nobody can stop them.

As long as US leaders wrap their filthy stinking garbage like torture in PATRIOTISM and GOD and overlay these abominations with a good dose of FEAR MONGERING,the vast majority of Americans simple stand aside and say " GO TO IT"

In my dark moments,I wish that all Americans could be forced to be "water boarded" and then see if they believe that this practise is TORTURE.

There are of course a host of other issues involved in the torture debate including RENDITION,where again the monumentally hypocritical and morally bankrupted Americans deliberately send prisoners to countries known for their expertise and willing to torture.

As always in these cases,the US and Americans hasn't even the GUTS to do their own filthy vile torturing which allows them to "wash their hands of any responsibility" ans go to Church every Sunday and tell each other what good little Christians they are.

Never ever again will the world ever listen or care if American soldiers are TORTURED for as good little Christians that they are NOT,Americans know full well what their Savior Christ told them:

THOSE WHO LIVE BY THE SWORD,DIE BY THE SWORD

For torture loving non Christians, WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND .

Answer 4

It's good to hear someone like you once in a while. I have heard so many posters that justify torture in the name of fighting terrorism. Not sure if you have read 1984, since you quoted George Orwell, I'd definitely recommend it if you haven't.

Looking back in the dark ages in history, Ancient China, Spanish Inquisition, Ancient Rome, Medieval Times, Vlad the Impaler... so many traces of horrible, HORRIBLE tortures that chills me to the bones. Every morning, I wake up being grateful that our founding fathers have shed their blood and faced tortures themselves and built such a wonderful country, providing an opportunity for civilization to evolve to a point to where they do NOT have to face the fear of torture. Opening minds up to radical ideas and a new world of technology. Where criminals have chances to be reborn. Our people have evolved to a point where we understood the evils of torture, we condemned Nazi Germany, we condemned Communist Russia, and Communist China.

Unfortunately, this country has been skewed somewhere along the historic lane, infiltrated, hijacked, or perhaps simply drunk from power and introducing, once again, a nation that we have once condemned.

Freedom, liberty, human rights are terms I used to associate with America, but I have to say it no longer applies...

[Additions]
To "You Ask and I Answer", and everyone else who supports torture:

Yes, personally, in such a situation like you suggested, I may resort to torture. However, as a nation, where do you draw the line?? When is it acceptable, and when is it not??

Does it only apply to foreign terrorists? What about American criminals? Does the crime matter? If it is acceptable in one case, how can you debate it's not acceptable in another? Once you have given the government the right to torture, you're opening the Pandora Box, especially now that the definition of a 'terrorist' is so fuzzy. The law may later to apply to political dissidents, independent investigative journalists that know too much, ordinary criminals (petty-thefts?). The truth is, you CAN'T draw a line.

There are NUMEROUS regimes in history that condone torture. Honestly, did they also not succumb to collapse?? Did it make their nation 'safer'?? It simply makes citizens cringe with fear. I wish you had lived in a time where Vlad the Impaler was in reign.

You can not use one example, to justify such a drastic practice that could possibly affect the whole of humanity. Please reconsider the whole impact on the evolution of civilization as a whole. Instead of debating this issue, wouldn't it be more worthwhile to discuss what can be done to resolve the whole terrorism issue? Why not just fix the problem at the root?

Answer 5

WRONG...You are SO WRONG!!!

Let me pose a question to you. What if a loved one of yours is being held captive and is liable to either be tortured or killed (probably both). However, there is one person in custody who KNOWS where this loved one of yours is. Would you:
1) Ask politely for the location? (as if that would work)
2)Threaten legal action? (they are already in custody; what can you do?)
3) Use torture to get that information from them (keep in mind it is dead certain that this person knows where your loved one is held)

Which would you HONESTLY choose? Hmmm...?
Personally I would vouch for the torture myself. Even do it myself if need be.
Now, put it into the context of protect citizens and or soldiers lives. Possibly 10, 100, 1000, or 10000 can be saved IF you use torture. What would be your stand then?
Chew on that for a bit and see how you like it...

Answer 6

Torture is the devils work. To do so is to do the devils work. Bush is making sure that the devils work gets done. I guess he's trying to score points for his time in hell.

Answer 7

Jerk-offs like DAWG and Darwinman are the reason our government tortures. This is nothing new... it's been going on secretely for years within the CIA.

If Bush would have been even remotely truthfull... he would have said, "We do not torture. We send prisoners off to other countries to be tortured."

Answer 8

funny how we locked up soldiers in Viet Nam for doing what bush believes is justified today

we also locked up Japanese soldiers after world war two for torturing americans

now we are the torturers

and yet people think that is ok

just wait till they torture someone in youre family

just like the canadien they snatched and sent to eastern europe to torture for a year, then let him out after they realized they had the wrong guy

welcome to america! land of the terribly scared!

Answer 9

This depends on your definition of torture and George Bush's definiation, which seems to be anything goes.

Answer 10

We have un enlightened, barbaric thugs in positions of authority who are under orders of the Bush administration.
I would say the brutality of Cheney and Bush are the reason.
Its through their ignornace and brutality they justify plundering the natural resources of Iraq and enabling themselves and other to personal gain. Do you really think you can beat information out of someone?