What Is Torture? by AnthonyT

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

What Is Torture?

POSTED BY: ANTHONYT
UPDATED: Saturday, April 25, 2009 07:12
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Friday, April 24, 2009 4:46 PM

Freedom is Important because People are Important

Hello,

I have given this question a lot of thought. There is a lot of debate about where the magic line is in torture versus interrogation.

I have come to this conclusion. Torture is:

"Any discomfort forced upon an individual for punitive, informative, or entertainment purposes is torture except where it is done with the un-coerced consent of the subject."

This rules out Reality TV. ;-)

The discomfort forced upon an individual for containment purposes alone, to protect the populace from criminals, is to be regretfully endured.

--Anthony

"Liberty must not be purchased at the cost of Humanity." --Captain Robert Henner

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Saturday, April 25, 2009 3:24 AM

ANTHONYT

Freedom is Important because People are Important

Hello,

This interesting related tidbit has surfaced on the news:

http://www.newser.com/story/57109/a-grand-for-every-second-hes-torture
d.html

While non-coerced participation wouldn't be torture by my standards, I am interested in what a person would say who was subjected to waterboarding, even willingly. Would their entrenched opinion change?

--Anthony

"Liberty must not be purchased at the cost of Humanity." --Captain Robert Henner

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Saturday, April 25, 2009 3:43 AM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!

Attempting to have a rational, mature and honest debate about anything remotely political on the internet.

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Saturday, April 25, 2009 3:55 AM

KIRKULES

I think in general you could say that it's any harsh interrogation procedure that causes permanent physical of psychological harm. One of the reasons that the psychological component would be hard to define is because what is psychologically stressful for one culture might not be for another. I can see were a devout Muslim might be distressed by having his Koran flushed down the toilet, but I cant see even the most devout Christian being traumatized.

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Saturday, April 25, 2009 4:47 AM

ANTHONYT

Freedom is Important because People are Important

Hello Kirk,

This may be one of the only definitions of torture I've heard where torture can be entirely accidental.

For instance, you could create any injury you liked if you thought you could fully rehabilitate someone from the injury.

However, if you thought you could fully rehabilitate someone from their injuries, but fell short of 100% recovery, then you'd have inadvertently tortured them.

If such a system created harsh punishments for miscalculating, you might end up with some very timid interrogators... and that might be best.

On the other hand, this seems to me a system of definition that would be easily and handily abused.

--Anthony

"Liberty must not be purchased at the cost of Humanity." --Captain Robert Henner

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Saturday, April 25, 2009 7:12 AM

KIRKULES

Quote:
Originally posted by AnthonyT:
Hello Kirk,

This may be one of the only definitions of torture I've heard where torture can be entirely accidental.

For instance, you could create any injury you liked if you thought you could fully rehabilitate someone from the injury.

However, if you thought you could fully rehabilitate someone from their injuries, but fell short of 100% recovery, then you'd have inadvertently tortured them.

If such a system created harsh punishments for miscalculating, you might end up with some very timid interrogators... and that might be best.

On the other hand, this seems to me a system of definition that would be easily and handily abused.

--Anthony

Even though I do think it's torture to intentionally do some thing that leaves permanent psychological damage, that doesn't mean it's not necessary to do so in some cases. I have no problem with using severe psychological distress on those intent on mass killing. These nutcase already have problems that go way beyond our ability to "rehabilitate". Most of the psychological damage done to them was done by their parents when they were children. The threat they pose to society outweighs any sympathy I feel about their tragic lives. It's not a good thing to use psychological torture, but if the alternative is physical abuse, I think the choice is obvious, because physical abuse leaves psychological scars almost 100% of the time on top of the physical scars.

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