The Pros And Cons Of Torture

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It treats the victim as a means to an end and not an end in themselves. It treats the victim as a 'thing', instead of an individual with all the value that we associate with people. It uses the physical body of the victim not as a component part of a person of value, but as a tool to achieve the aims of the person committing the crime. It is seen as a solution to even bigger problems when all ‘it’ really is, is torture. Torture, in its many forms, is as old as time itself and has played a major part throughout history for many reasons. These reasons range from the obvious ones that we are familiar with today: obtaining possibly life-saving information from uncooperative enemy attackers, to the less justifiable of reasons: torment for delight or discipline. Torture is one of the most extreme forms of human violence, resulting in both physical and …show more content…
A common one is known as waterboarding. Waterboarding is a method of water torture where water is poured over a cloth that is covering the entire face along with breathing passages of an immobilized captive, causing the individual to experience the sensation of drowning. The waterboarding technique can be dated back to the 1500s during the Italian Inquisition. While waterboarding is being performed on a prisoner, not only do they think they are about to drown, but they are both mentally and physically being tortured simultaneously. In Vietnam forty years ago, waterboarding was first designated as illegal by U.S. generals. A photograph that appeared in The Washington Post of a U.S. soldier involved in water boarding a North Vietnamese prisoner in 1968 led to that soldier's severe punishment. The CIA maintains its interrogation techniques and make sure they are in legal guidance with the Justice Department. Made official in 2002, President Bush, Condoleezza Rice and then-Attorney General John Ashcroft approved the techniques, including waterboarding