Thoughts on torture?

Just curious on what you guys think of torture? Recently had a debate about this in my poltiical science course, it seemed like the main voice was saying its ok.. And the main reason is the "fire with fire" idea...

Do people really think this is correct or not. I my self was absolutely appalled.. The United States government has made this a grey area in the past couple years which has disturbed me.. Just like having camera's in all of our homes (hypothetically of course) it could save our lives.. But the fact of the matter is can we really trust people with this huge responsibility? I say absolutely no.. torture is the exact same case, how can we trust the government with such a power that can be immensely abused.. Where when incarcerated a plea to guilty can be beaten out of you even if your innocent.. This has happened through out history.. Even recent times in Abu Gharib where the majority of people who were tortured were infact innocent..

Of course the majority of torturers do not believe this which will only result in increased abuse intill the person does give a statement that matchs with their idea.. Some of the people who don't confess (falsely or truthful) are merely beaten to death.. This has happened a few times in Iraq.. How can this be productive when it can only enflame the entire population giving more support to the extremist groups>? Do people realize that every study on torture that has ever been released has shown it to be a highly inaccurate piece of evidence.. Thoughts?

People will talk, but they're just as likely to be lying as to be telling the truth. Of course theres also the matter of it being illegal under national, military, and international, and inhumane to an extreme degree. Thats not even bringing up the fact that it does more harm than good by serving as a recruiting tool for the really bad extremists out there..not the taxi drivers who are what much of Guantanamo and Abu Ghraid consist of.

Nope, no torture for me thanks.

On one hand, you fight fire with water. On the other, the people the U.S. interrogates will never give important answers without it. So, I do not know. organic_machine

The point though is the fact that can we honestly entrust them with the immense power that they have the RIGHT people to begin with? This has happened through out history where a force picks a innocent person and pertty much beats a confession out of them.. Alot of times the people who refuse to confess to a crime or information they do not have they have ended up dead..

about a year back they killed a man in Iraq by putting a bag over his head.. He was found to be innocent afterwards from evdience found to not have any ties to enemy forces.. How can any one think this is ok? Yeah torture in a PERFECT world with a PERFECT system of government could work, but we are in a niether perfect world or perfect government..

you know who else used torture? the inquisitors, and they got the answers they wanted... not the truth.

Torture in interrogation is wrong

some whips and ball gags during teh sexay tiem is a-ok ;)

Its like freedom of speech in my eyes.. On one hand burning the flag can be seen as distasteful (protest wise).. But Freedom of Speech is absolute, once we start banning certian things we are opening the pandoras box... We have shown recent and older stories that the government is far from efficent.. Where the patriot act hurt alot of innocent people.. Hell they just recently had a story where a g uy was deported to Syria (where he was then tortured after the US promised they would not), this was all on the belief that he had terrorist ties.. Where none such evidence has shown.. In the end in my eyes these values and ideas can not be bent and there will always be a price to pay for them..

It was once said that any one who sacrifices liberty for security deserve niether... I tend to agree with this point..

You know, I could say it's wrong and inhumane, but I'm sure if I were given the incentive I would have no problem with it.SaugaGames

Thats true of basically any act..the government conducted experiments on exactly such a thing (Google "The Manipulation of Human Behavior" to see).

[QUOTE="SaugaGames"]You know, I could say it's wrong and inhumane, but I'm sure if I were given the incentive I would have no problem with it.RichterBelmont7

Thats true of basically any act..the government conducted experiments on exactly such a thing (Google "The Manipulation of Human Behavior" to see).

The point of the matter is we would do anything in distress for example when there is a gun at a loved ones head.. This doesn't make you crediable or your actions as justified.. Or take for instance you meet the person who murdered yoru entire family.. From a society perspective you are not justified to murder that person.. Now of course the majority of the people out there would want to kill him, but thats driven all by emotion.. Not logic or mindfulness of the laws in society... Just my 2 cents.