Crumbling of the American Soul (2016)
THIS IS AN ADULT ARTICLE: READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
“Torture destroys the soul of the torturer even as it destroys the body of its victim. The boundary between humane treatment of prisoners and torture is perhaps the clearest boundary on existence between civilization and barbarism”
Jonathan Schell 1.
Gaining national coverage as the story broke, the shock and awe that surrounded the photographs that emerged from Abu Ghraib only scratched the surface of what would be done in the name of safety. The only real glimpses of what occurred within that facility came paired with smiling faces in the foreground. Many of those people who were appalled by the nature of these sadistic actions conducted by fellow American’s on other human beings almost seemed like fiction. The very photographs embodying events that occurred in a far off land with nameless faces distanced us from them, and what was happening in those rooms; however, in this instance those faces wore a uniform…a U.S. military uniform. Although, it is difficult to resist the use of torture, given the spectacle that was the September eleventh attacks, especially when the potential lives of thousands more may be at stake.
The U.S. military is never justified in its use of torture on its prisoners for two reasons: the information gained through torture may not be reliable or even useful. Furthermore, the United States has condemned the use of torture by other nations– doing so itself, therefore, is hypocrisy.
First, although the goal of the military using torture is to gain information, the more painful the torture is, the more significant the desire on the part of the recipient to end the torture. Thus, the detainee may say anything if it means the pain would end. Mark A. Costanzo, a professor at Claremont McKenna College, and Ellen Gerrity, a professor at Duke University, stated that in many torture situations, “The goal [of the prisoner] was to appease the torturer, not to reveal the truth. And, because the interrogators were not omniscient, they could not discern which bits of information were true and which were false” (Costanzo, Gerrity 183)2. Therefore, torture should be deemed inefficient unless the intention is to increase net human suffering.
Second, it is not only useless information that is problematic, but it is the methodology of distinguishing between the innocent and potential suspects is flawed. Costanzo and Gerrity continue to say that many of those seized by the U.S. Government when searching for suspects seem to fit a profile and are, “perceived as suspicious, or [are in] association with known or suspected terrorists” (Costanzo, Gerrity 184). Essentially, this means that any person could be labeled as a terrorist and seized if they fit a profile. As consequence, the situation then becomes a sort of witch-hunt based on fear and unknowing; the more innocent people who are seized means more false information is circulated and then acted upon. The lack of information, and information not necessarily based on fact, causes innocent people to be further subjugated to abuse. It is this sort of confirmation bias that is detrimental to the cause of accurately fighting terrorism, and it increases the potential of a miscarriage of justice. Creating an organism akin to that of the Minority Report.
A specific example is the case of the Guantanamo Bay detainees. Out of the 700 people brought in by the U.S. Government were tortured or detained there, 400 were released or cleared of all charges (Costanzo, Gerrity 184). So what causes this many people to be seized and tortured? Costanzo and Gerrity traced cause back to interrogators training in lie detection. While their training improved their confidence, it did not increase the interrogators’ ability to accurately assess lying. On the contrary, the interrogator believed that those being interrogated were lying more. Thus, those interrogators who are wrong in their judgments are more likely to increase torture to receive an answer that seems like the “truth” (Costanzo, Gerrity 185). The interrogators have no way of knowing the validity of information, so they continue under assumptions and continue to seek information, endangering true justice.
Third, the constant strive for freedom and justice has been the American way and is the foundation of our own beliefs. America has always taken the side of defending and preserving freedom; there has been a sense of dignity to war efforts that this nation has always adhered to. Kevin Toolis, a writer for The New Statesmen, a British political magazine, wrote in regard to Western ethics, “Our war against the enemy is always a righteous struggle against the evil forces of terrorism or oppression. Western soldiers fight with honour and do not rape, torture or indiscriminately murder prisoners” (Toolis 1), which makes U.S. military’s use of torture detrimental to our cause as it does our justifications, particularly in the case of Abu Ghraib a prison in Iraq. Formerly, the facility was in the hands of Saddam Hussein for torturing victims, then acquired by U.S. forces for housing dangerous prisoners…and torture. During this time, both contracted and U.S. officers in charge began their own methods of “enhanced interrogation.” As Toolis put it, in regards to the leading U.S. officer Ivan Frederick, “He ran a regime of terror, sleep deprivation, sexual humiliations and casual beatings at the behest of his military superiors in order to soften up prisoners for those interrogators” (Toolis 3)3. These actions were no better than that of the enemy. It is not only that, but American intentions began to blur. American officials stopped upholding the values that the war intended to bring (i.e. freedom, equality, justice) and on another level allowed for the enemies’ potential justification for torturing American soldiers through emulation.
The American people lose so much “ethically” through the use of torture the moral high ground cannot be regained. The methods are generally unreliable, and if these actions are allowed to continue the American soul will continue to crumble. We must continue to seek alternative solutions to these problems. The United States is a nation of innovators and many new technologies are on the rise, some potentially serving as alternatives to make torture obsolete; one specifically is brain imaging technology.
Development of brain scanning technology should serve as a rational technological example and alterative to unreasonable methods. This new method maps the brain’s reactions to questions and then determines if the subject is lying or being truthful.4 The only issue is that subjects may not cooperate and the technology is only two decades old, which makes it generally unreliable at the moment, which could lead to invasive procedures. However, that does not mean that this technology will not develop further to then serve as an asset to the international community as a whole.
Torture is not a battle of right or left; it is inhumane. We lose the very reason we fight to survive for: people and animals should not be stripped of all dignity and their rights for potentially useless information. That should serve as motivation to seek alternative solutions other than torture to extract critical resources.
THIS ARTICLE WAS ARCHIVED FOR HISTORICAL DOCUMENTARY PURPOSES AND DOES NOT REFLECT MY POLTICAL VIEWS OR OPINIONS IT WAS WRITTEN ENTIRELY AS AN EXERCISE IS CONTRUCTIVE ESSAY FORMATING AND PROSE. I WROTE THIS WHEN I WAS 20.
Schell, Jonathan. "What Is Wrong With Torture." Nation 280.5 (2005): 8. Points of View Reference Center. Web. 29 Jan. 2016.
Costanzo, MA, and E. Gerrity. "The Effects and Effectiveness of using Torture as an Interrogation Device: Using Research to Inform the Policy Debate." SOCIAL ISSUES AND POLICY REVIEW 3.1 (2009): 179-210. Wiley Online Library .Web. 29 Jan. 2016.
Toolis, Kevin. "TORTURE: Simply The Spoils Of Victory? (Cover Story)." New Statesman 133.4687 (2004): 8. Points of View Reference Center. Web. 29 Jan. 2016.
Faulkes, Zen. "Can Brain Imaging Replace Interrogation and Torture?" Global Virtue Ethics Review 6.2 (2011): 55. ProQuest. Web. 29 Jan. 2016