10, December 2016 Torture
The latest survey on American attitudes
towards torture reveal a staggering 46 percent approve of using such cruel
methods to extract information from enemy combatants, ignoring repeated studies
which completely counter the effectiveness of such techniques. On the contrary,
such methods only intensify the hostility towards the US. One need only
reference the pioneering work on ‘Crime and Punishment’ by Cesare Baccaria in
1764 who called for the total abolition of torture not only on the grounds of
its immorality but also because it simply doesn’t work. Victims will say
anything to stop the torture. President-elect Trump wants to bring back
waterboarding and ‘much worse.’ How brave of our future president who used his
wealth to avoid being drafted to the killing fields of Vietnam. Trump needs to
remember that torture is a war crime which has been banned by international
law.
President Obama can help prevent torture from
making a comeback by releasing the Torture Memo which highlights the dark deeds
of the CIA during the Bush years.
If he fails to do so, torture will surely
re-emerge under president-elect Trump who has shown an appalling fascination in
torture. The fact that torture is a federal crime under US anti-torture statute
hasn’t damped his enthusiasm for its practice.
President Obama made a tactical blunder
refusing to prosecute high level officials responsible for the torture program
under the Bush presidency. His administration’s insistence of looking forward
not back created a sense of impunity.
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