Why Is Torture Effective?

Is torture acceptable? Is it effective? Many Americans are asking these questions in response to the American Government recently issuing its first open admission to the use of torture in pursuit of intelligence. Torture has historically involved inflicting physical pain until the individual if willing to cooperate but in recent decades the use of psychological, or “no-touch”, torture has become the go to interrogation method when trying to persuade enemy combatants to cooperate (Welch, 2009)). Due to this “no-touch” method it is hard for human rights organizations to prosecute this new form of “interrogation” as torture. Therefore many psychologists, with the backing of the APA and US government, have faced little to no repercussions for their …show more content…
Often individuals brought in for interrogation know little to no actionable Intel that will help in the war on terror but are still subjected to both psychological and physical torture for extended periods. One such instance was documented in a memo dated a little over a year after the programs were implemented. In the memo the interrogators in Guantanamo Bay stated that they had received no valuable intelligence even after a wide variety of enhanced interrogation techniques were used and then instead of asking themselves if the prisoner actually had any information of note they decided to increase the intensity of the torture instead (Welch, 2009). This mistake has become commonplace because of the reward the government offers for information leading to the arrest of an enemy of the state. Therefore many individuals are subjugated to unnecessary torture at the hands of the United States Government. The ineffectiveness of torture is another reason that I don’t support it. Torture has proven to be very ineffective in regards to obtaining information from enemy prisoners so I am reluctant to accept it as a viable option. Not only has torture not produced results, it has been proven that torture can actually increase the resistance of prisoners (Welch, 2009). Finally, I cannot condone our government’s use of psychological torture is because of they lack morals and restraint. In one of their darker moments the APA and US government allowed the torture of a twelve-year-old child to take place under their watch. Not only did a psychologist order the torture of this child, but also then when his crime was discovered he didn’t take accountability for what he did and instead chose to take his Fifth Amendment right (Summers, 2014). When conducting there enhanced interrogations the psychologists showed little