Saturday, December 10, 2016

Torture 12-10-2016

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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