I can see both sides of this question. Both authors make good points on whether torture is right or wrong. I don't think I could ever be the person to torture another person because it would be morally wrong in my beliefs. Hypothetically, if we capture a person who has information on a threat that is going to happen in the next 24 hours, are we just going to let them sit there or are we going to try and get it out of them? Everybody would agree we should try to get the information out of that person, but I don't think that getting it out of them should amount to torture. On the other side, if we were to torture someone, couldn't they just tell the interrogator a lie to stop the torture?
I do think that Krauthammer made a better point in his argument, but I don't think torture to a certain extent is okay. We are supposed to be a land of the free, but President Bush declared that the Geneva Convention, signed years ago, applies to detainees, but not to unlawful combatants and the use of justified interrogating techniques are able to be used. Krauthammer said that only the prisoners that should be tortured are terrorists and those with information about pending terrorist events. I agree with Krauthammer that torture should only be used in a dire situation.
Andrew Sullivan does not support torture and says that the information the terrorists give us is unreliable and thus unlikely to save lives. I agree with this. He states that "to reduce them to a subhuman level is to exonerate them of their acts of terrorism and mass murder-just as animals are not deemed morally responsible for killing." We shouldn't lower our morale just to try and get information out of them because they still did something terrible.
I don't believe that so many people should be tortured, but under dire circumstances we should get the information we need. I am glad to live in the United States because I know we are protected from that kind of treatment as long as we are law-abiding citizens. Though I am disgraced by the government because they are corrupt in dealing with other countries and some of the things going on in our country. I could not believe that they bring suspects to other countries to torture them. I hope someday our government and country is a true symbol of freedom and justice.
