 |
Add to My Group
1
1
1
View Ratings |
Rate It
Americans Supported Torture Because They Were Deceived into Thinking that it was a Necessary Evil
By George Washington (about the author) Page 1 of 1 page(s)
For OpEdNews: George Washington - Writer I have written numerous essays documenting that torture doesn't work (see this, for example). In response, many people have commented by saying: Well yes, of course it is. But it is in one sense even more important that it does not work (and that it actually reduces our national security).
"Who cares whether or not it works? It is illegal, unethical and unacceptable".
Why?
Because - as president-elect of Psychologists for Social Responsibility, Roy Eidelson, points out - most Americans supported the use of torture because they were deceived into thinking that it works and was a necessary tool in a life-or-death war on terror.
For example, Eidelson points out that a nationwide poll run in January 2009 asked a national sample of Americans, "Do you think the use of harsh interrogation techniques, including torture, has ever saved American lives since the September 11 (2001) terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon?" The results: 45% "Yes" and 41% "No" (with 14% responding "Don't Know"). In other words, almost half of Americans think torture "works."
Indeed, Eidelson notes out that the administration conducted a sophisticated propaganda campaign to "sell" Americans on the use of torture.
The fact that torture is illegal, unethical and unacceptable is not enough to convince the majority of American people that those who ordered it should be prosecuted.
It is vital to spread the facts, because only the truth that torture does not work will wake the public up and lead to prosecutions.
www.WashingtonsBlog.com
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author
and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
 Contact Author |
Contact Editor |
 View Authors' Articles |
by Emad Mekay
$9.95
Number of pages: 2
Publisher: Thomson Gale
| 3 comments |
|
Torture
I never thought torture was needed and never would. I was raised by veterans from WWll, Korea, friends in Nam, and was a veterans service officer. My family didn't believe in torture even though my Uncle was captured at Bataan and help prisoner til the end of the war. He was still kind, loving and caring and became a mountain cop in a small town and never got violent to anyone. My Dad saw horrible things that gave him nightmares for years and years and I only saw him get "mad" once with a white fist and no raise in his voice. This was the way it was in our family. My Dad did NOT believe in torture, no matter what had happened to his brother. He had 7 brother serve in WWll. Many of us were NOT decieved into thinking is was a must and we all studied the Geneva Convention in school. Please give some of us credit for knowing what was going on and that is was illegal no matter what we were told. We also saw the DOJ change laws to break the Constitution and Bill of Rights and yet, here we all sat. To me, we are all to blame for those 8 years and every single Congressmen broke the law by not protecting the Constitution from domestic enemies. by sandy valencour (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 73 comments [33 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Tuesday, May 12, 2009 at 1:07:56 PM  (0+)
|
|
not so "nice" as we hope ourselves to be....
I grew up here in America, like most of us. I disagree that Americans need to be "convinced" that torture is necessary. There is a goodly portion, perhaps as many as a quarter who seem to have no qualms about torture what-so-ever, as long as it's a "bad guy" getting the business. This is not based on statistics, just my intuition after getting a sense of where America is at when on the forums and threads during the time of Timothy McViegh's trial. A great number of the commentators were very imaginative in their fevered daydreams of the types of torments they would apply to Tim were they able to get their paws on him. To myself this was quite a revelation...one that still haunts me, along with, "If it were up to me I'd just nuke the whole damn place and be done with it", when it comes to the Middle East situation. I have heard this expressed too many times to count. American Exceptionalism runs deep, even now in the 21st century when we can veritably feel the breath of God on the back of our necks... by William Whitten (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 4880 comments [1711 recommended, 28 rejected]) on Tuesday, May 12, 2009 at 1:46:08 PM (0+)
|
|
What "Works"
As long as there are those who think that wars "work", and that killing people "works" in some cases, then anything imaginable, including the most repugnant and morally indefensible things a person can do, can be justified and thought to"work" under certain circumstances. by Bill Cain (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 460 comments [78 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Tuesday, May 12, 2009 at 4:13:23 PM (0+)
|
Want to post your own comment on this Article? 
|
||||
|
||||||||||||||
Must Read (0) 
News (0) 
Touching (0) 
Funny (0) 
Supported (0) 
Inspiring (0) Tell a Friend:
|
Copyright © 2002-2009, OpEdNews |
