Torture is considered to be one of the cruelest and severest methods of punishment or investigation, which expresses human violence towards other people. It is mostly used by the CIA in order to get secret information from the terrorists and prevent the future terrorist acts. Although this kind of severe act of inflicting physical or psychological pain was prohibited in most of the countries, the debate over legislation and necessity of torture are continuing among the society till today. Plenty of arguments were given by the adherents of torture, the main aim of which is proving that terrorists deserve physical or psychological pain, if it helps to gain useful information for the government. However, it must be remembered that torture leads to the bad consequences: it is illegal punishment that neither prevents terrorism acts nor has a positive influence on the victims as well as on the perpetrators of torture.
First of all, the supporters of torture should understand that torture of one terrorist will not stop the terrorism itself. In order to defeat terrorism, the governments of the countries should develop complex of measures, for instance, improving intelligence department, cooperation with other nations, implementation of programs against terrorism, etc. Torture itself is rather useless and does not contribute to the fight against terrorism since the names of terrorists change every year, but the possibility of terrorism in any country, at any time and place remains the same. Thereby, the number of criminal groups will not decrease since they are not intimidated by potential torture, but the responsibility for injured and harmed prisoners would be on an interrogator’s conscience.
People who support torture often reference to the idea that it can be an effective method for getting secret information from the terrorist about, for example, the location of time bomb and as a result the terrorist act would be prevented. They claim that the criminal is not able to withstand the severe torment and violent pain, so he will give all necessary information to the interrogator in order to save himself from the further physical or psychological abuse. However, this argument is weak enough since it does not consider the possibility of getting the false information. Being under the ruthless torture, the only desire of terrorist at that moment is to say anything that can stop the pain, thereby he will give any information and nobody knows whether it true or false. Furthermore, terrorists have been preparing for the crime for a long time; these preparations include physical as well as psychological training and their readiness to be arrested by the government is quite high. While committing the act of terrorism, the criminal groups pursue definite, mostly ideological, purposes, in the same time they realize that once they are captured, the torture cannot be avoided. But the ideological purpose of the terrorist attack is high, and giving true information to the government will be the act of betrayal of this purpose. Thereby, the possibility of giving wrong information under the torture is quite high due to terrorist’s beliefs as well as his desire to stop torment.
At the same time, the juridical side of the issue should be mentioned. America is considered to be one of the most democratic countries in the world, where the government respects the rights of its citizens. In 1984 the United Nations held the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which was intended to take a number of measures in order to prevent any kind of torture in all countries (United Nations Treaty Collection). The United States ratified the treaty in 1994, but then started to violate this agreement, especially after the events of 9/11. Such violation creates a negative reputation of the country and, moreover, it sets a bad example for other countries: “The worry is that when America breaks the rules it encourages others to do the same” (Is Torture Ever Justified? The Economist). Therefore, applying of torture in spite of the decision of the Convention provide America with lower status among world countries.
On the other hand, adherents of the torture may state that this issue is not about political status of the country, but about the punishment of the guilty criminals. They present the idea of revenge and the necessity to bring the pain to those who were going to kill or have already killed innocent people. Since they (terrorists) really deserve it, the torture is considered now as an extra punishment for terrorists’ actions. In contradiction to it, it should be said that this issue is not about the revenge, because everything that happened has already left in the past, and the desire for retaliation is not an option. Society should operate by its own code of ethics and all power has to be focused on the further prevention of the terrorist attacks instead of being obsessed with the desire of bringing the pain to other people, even if these people are terrorists.
Just as the institution of death penalty needs the executioner, the torture needs someone who will inflict pain to another person. The impact of torture on the terrorist as well as on interrogator is extremely harmful. Mark A. Costanzo and Ellen Gerrity in their work present the consequences of using torture: “Torture itself has been shown to be directly linked to post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) Depression, anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and other psychiatric illnesses are also commonly diagnosed following torture” (Costanzo, Gerrity 190). But if the adherents of torture say that terrorist deserve all of this, then they should also think about the psychological health of the perpetrator of torture: “the torturer begin to experience psychological damage resulting from involvement in torture and trauma. In these cases, the psychological symptoms are very similar to those of victims” (Costanzo, Gerrity 194). Christopher Arendt, 24-year student who was the prison guard at Guantanamo Bay, shares his experience of being in the prison for terrorists: “it was really starting to break me down. I couldn’t deal with it. I tied a 550 cord to the ceiling fan that was in my room and I tried to hang myself, but I ripped the fan out of the ceiling That was about two months before we went home” (Arendt “What It Feels Like to Be a Prison Guard at Guantanamo Bay”). Therefore, while stating that torture is a good way to punish the terrorists, people should think first about the consequences for the torturers who can leave a psychological harmed person for ever.
The question about using torture is controversial enough – it touches law, morality, justice and security. In any event, the debate over torture should be stopped since it neither brings the effective results nor stops the terrorism itself; the tortured person is unlikely to give true information, at the same time the harm that the terrorist and the interrogator will undergo is rather serious. Moreover, torture is prohibited by the Convention against Torture. That is why the United States should not undermine confidence of its allies and set bad example for other counties. Undoubtedly, terrorism has to be defeated, and it is also undoubtedly that torture will not help to do this.
Works cited
Arendt, Christopher. “What It Feels Like to Be a Prison Guard at Guantanamo Bay.” Esquire. N. p., Esquire., 30 Jul. 2008. Web. 23 Nov. 2014.
United Nations Treaty Collection. Chapter IV Human Rights. Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Web. 23 Nov. 2014.
Costanzo, Mark A. and Gerrity, Ellen. “The Effects and Effectiveness of Using Torture as an Interrogation Device: Using Research to Inform the Policy Debate”. Social Issues and Policy Review. Web. 23 Nov. 2014.
Is Torture Ever Justified? The Economist. N. p., The Economist, 20 Sep. 2007. Web. 23 Nov. 2014.
