Stephen Austin

Stephen AustinMr. RussoFebruary 20, 2018ELA Should torture be allowed in the US Military? Should the Military be allowed to use Torture for information regarding terrorism to save lives? Some people would say It is effective and it does its purpose, which is to save lives and prevent terrorist attacks. Other people deny this claim and believe that it is ineffective, and inhumane. In 2008, President Obama signed an executive order stopping the use of torture. The current President of the United States is for the use of torture. “Throughout the Middle East they’re chopping off heads of Christians, they’re chopping of heads of people, anyone that gets in the way.

They’re drowning 30-40 people at a time in heavy steal cages. As far as I’m concerned, waterboarding is absolutely fine, and we should go much further.”The history of Torture. the action or practice of inflicting severe pain on someone as a punishment or to force them to do or say something, or for the pleasure of the person inflicting the pain” In Exodus, it shows how brutally enslaved and tortured the children of Israel were shown in Exodus 5:22.

Eventually, as technology improved, so did torture methods such as whips, and shackles. A common way to torture people while putting them to death would be a crucifix. People’s hands and legs would be nailed to a cross shaped piece of wood and would be left to hung for the rest of their lives, which could last from hours to days.

This device was designed for people to get just enough air to live while suffering. People who are thirst would be given vinegar to drink, and roman soldiers would often break different bones to make the victim suffer more before they die. During the middle ages, a common tactic would be ‘the metal coffin’. This coffin was made of metal that is roughly the same shape and size of the average human. Overweight people would be forced into this cage and hung inside of them until a crow would pick their dead bodies after they have died. An Iconic torture device is called the iron Maiden. The iron maiden is simply a coffin with a head at the top of it with spikes inside of the cage and the inside of the doors that open and close.

People have experienced many triadic and horrible things on the World Trade Center attack of September 11, 2001. A lot of people lost lives that day, “about 2,977 people” (reference.com) A lot of people lost family members, friends, children, mothers, fathers, and others. KSM was behind this horrific attack. People want answers and want to end terrorist attacks. Therefore, people like Donald Trump believes in torture. He wants to torture terrorist to find out information.

“Throughout the Middle East they’re chopping off heads of Christians, they’re chopping of heads of people, anyone that gets in the way. They’re drowning 30-40 people at a time in heavy steal cages. As far as I’m concerned, waterboarding is absolutely fine, and we should go much further.” – (Donald J. Trump. An article by the name of “The reason why Americans are OK with torture.” States say that “Americans don’t believe it” referring to the fact that torture doesn’t work, and false information is given.

Some people believe torture is a way of ‘pay back’ for their crimes against humanity. CBS’s “Most Americans consider waterboarding to be torture: poll” article states that fifty seven percent that took the poll believe that waterboarding and other forms of torture provide valuable information that can prevent terror attacks and twenty three percent believes that this occurs frequently. Only eight percent of people believe that information obtained by torture is trust worthy. There are many negative affects to torture. As previously stated, Torture is the act or practice of inflicting severe pain on someone. This is essentially haring the person. The military uses torture to extract information from terrorist.

There are several problems with this method used in today’s United States military. To begin with, people are usually in pain when tortured and will do anything for that pain to stop. With that information, people tend to lie. An example of this occurring within the military would be a case between a person called Khalid Sheik Mohammed. According to Fox news “‘Terror on trial special’ Who is KSM?” (2009)” Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, known as KSM, is one of history’s most violent and brutal terrorists. He was ether principle architect of the September 11th attacks as well as dozens of other plots against the U.S.

and western targets worldwide.” This story begins with how he was captured. The New Yorker’s “Khalid Sheik Mohammed and the C.I.A.” States someone that goes by the alias “Asset X’ who can lead them to ‘KSM’ and on February 2003 in Pakistan he was captured and taken into custody. He was tortured horribly.

The New Yorker’s “Khalid Sheik Mohammed and the C.I.A.” quote one of the C.I.A.’s documents on how the torture of KSM is progressing.

“Overall seems to be” that waterboarding “is not working in gaining KSM[‘s] compliance.” Later, it was revealed that KSM began to lie about who was involved in the terrorist plot just so the C.I.A. would stop torturing him. There are many alternatives to torture that allows people to confess to crimes and plots without having to harm the suspect. “Tactics Police Use to Get a Confession” by the Criminal Defense Lawyer says that there is a method called The Reid Technique which is when the police isolate the suspect from friends and family, they make the suspects feel guilty of the crime, then suggest that the criminal confess to the crime for a lower sentence.

Another law firm called Lauren Taylor Law explains that police officers can lie and deceive suspect into getting information, which is an alternative way of getting a confession. This could also be used in the military to get confessions from terrorist and possible prevent terrorist attacks. The most commonly used method to get a confession is called The Reid effect. This Reid effect was made in 1947 by John. E. Reid. This method has a total of 9 steps.

Essentially, the interrogator presents the evidence, which can be either real or fake, to the suspect and show that the suspect is involved in the crime. Then In conclusion, there are some benefits and negative effects of torture. To begin with, torture has been used for centuries of history, and go as far back as the time of Jesus and prior to him. Evidence of this were tools such as the crucifix which is where people would be nailed to a piece of wood and hung there for hours or even days in pain and agony. In current times however, torture is used to achieve information, usually from criminals or terror subjects. What multiple resources have proven is that there are mental effects that accompany torture. Though some people believe that torture is effective, is has been proven that it is unreliable because people will lie to end the torture.

An example of this is KSM, who has admitted to lying when he was tortured via waterboarding, and a method called walling which is when someone is thrown multiple times onto a wall. Studies have shown that there are also alternatives to torture to gain information. Interrogators can lie and create false evidence to convince suspects they are guilty and eventually make them confess to the crime that they have done.