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I did not wrie this: https://listencurrent.com/current_events/277-is-torture-justifiable

I think torture is both inhumane and bad method to use to extract information, in other words no I don't think it is.

In a civilized society I don't think there is room for resorting to barbaric methods like that. Punishing people for their acts with even more gruesome actions is hypocritical, It is the ultimate violation of a human's basic rights and should never be okay. The government needs to set an example by showing that it won't resort to that, you can't say something is wrong with one hand but then be doing it yourself with the other.

Even if you disregard the humanitarian aspect and it being hypocritical it's simply a very ineffective method. If a person is subjected to enough torture they'll eventually admit to most anything to get it to stop wheter they're actually guilty of it or not, and of course they may give false information in the case of using it as a means to extract information. It'll also only solidify these terrorists' views of the government as a bad guy and make their cause seem even more justified to them. There are frankly just more efficient, less hypocritical and far less problematic options overall.

Torture is never the way to go. Be it to extract information or for whatever other reason, torture is never justified.

The problem with the police is that they don't take lightly that people belittles they authority, and the only way they have of reacting is through violence. If they don't get what they want, they will force you to spit it up. As the force of the law, and thus the force of the government, they shouldn't act this way, but the government likes to watch away while all of this happens.

All of this non-justified violence can only spawn one thing: more violence from the other side. It's a vicious cycle, because then the authorities will justify their violence as "self-defense", and the government will believe them before believing the masses. 

You're all so squeamish.

Torture is used to extract information from prisoners. This information can be and is often used to find critical strike points and cripple our enemies. Were our enemies stronger, they would hurt us more, likely killing our soldiers abroad and civilians at home. The goal is information, not sadism.

On Utilitarian grounds, torture is justified if the amount of pleasure by extracting the information from the prisoner is more than the amount of pain given. So if all American soldiers get a +1 to their little utilitarian happiness score, but the prisoner gets a -10000, the soldiers win because there are more of them to consider. But I'm not a Utilitarian.

On a Kantian ground, torture is justified if one has a duty to torture. In the same way that a soldier has a duty to kill the opposing infantry, an intelligence officer would have a duty to torture prisoners to extract intelligence. When universally applied, it would mean that anyone can be tortured for the sake of war information. This is logically consistent (because it doesn't involves the world ceasing to exist or something) and is therefore right. To a Kantian, torture is not only "justifiable", but it is "right". But I am not a Kantian.

On a Christian ground, you must love your neighbor as you love yourself. However, if I were being evil and refused to reveal information about some impending murder of civilians, I would demand my neighbor hold me accountable for my deeds and attempt to save the lives. I would want my neighbor to love me and others so much that he would torture me so that I would do what is good. In that light, torture is again justified. I am a Christian.

So how can you say no? What grounds do you have to say that it's an evil?

Txgangsta : Unless the one that is tortured didn't do it and says lies just to get the torture to stop, not a good idea when you see it that way.


Lying is easy, you can fool the ones that torture you and you'll actually get rewarded for it in this situation, by making the torture stop.


Try to think about that as well.

appelmoesFTW :

Trained professionals can tell when a person is lying. And then just punish them for lying. Lying is an evil, that I'll admit to. Just because you can't tell doesn't mean psychologists can't.

And what's more, you haven't established torture as evil. All you've done is say "sometimes it doesn't work". That's not a counter objection.

Txgangsta : True, I never said it was evil, I just said it won't work well.

Of course torture isn't justifiable; it has support because too many people watch bad television. In reality, torture isn't even effective.

Well, in my opinion, no. Continual physical or psychological pain is not justifiable. You can punish people, rather than torturing them. Before I discuss this any further, let's not get confused with punishment and torture. By inputting the words in Google, we can see what their definitions mean:

punishment
- the infliction or imposition of a penalty as retribution for an offense.
- the penalty inflicted.
- rough treatment or handling inflicted on or suffered by a person or thing.

torture
- the action or practice of inflicting severe pain on someone as a punishment or to force them to do or say something, or for the pleasure of the person inflicting the pain.
- inflict severe pain on.

Now that we know what their definitions are, let us proceed. Okay, so they're both similar. However, take a look at punishment's and torture's first definition:

- the action or practice of inflicting severe pain on someone as a punishment or to force them to do or say something, or for the pleasure of the person inflicting the pain.

- the infliction or imposition of a penalty as retribution for an offense.

When you see the words penalty, retribution, and offense and practice, force, and pleasure they now seem very different from each other. For one thing, punishment is a one time infliction-- there are no additions, just one result. Torture on the other hand is continual. It never stops, only after you die or after they get what they need.


So, in my humble and honest opinion, I would say, no. Torture is not and will never be justifiable.

Kuti_Kat : Pretty much what you said.

No, torture isn't justifiable. Simple answer: They're still humans.

Long answer: Even if it was justifiable (Which isn't) it's still a bad way to extract information. Many people confess to crimes they didn't commit or give out false information just to stop the excruciating pain.

No matter the outcome, I do no think torture is justifiable in any way.

Many are going to disagree with me on this but torture is justified. Now,hear me out. These people that committed inhuman and savage attacks on unarmed people,people that were just minding their business,then these dips--ts come out of hiding or roll up suddenly and open fire on a crowd. Was that human? Was that justified?

They surrendered their right to be considered human after those attacks. Torture can be effective if administered correctly. Yes,people will say anything to end the pain,but if you take a skilled operative that can see past their line of BS,you can find out if they are lying. Torture should be reinstated as a way to punish and correct people. Some people cannot learn,some people are just hopeless,just put a bullet in their skull and call it a day.

We have to think big picture here,people. The torture of the few idiotic,moronic,people that commit heinous crimes is insignificant to the number of people that were killed,maimed,hurt or traumatized during those acts. Force is sometimes the purest form of justice. Those animals do not deserve consideration,they do not deserve humane conditions,they deserve our spite,our hatred,our anger. Forcing these people to give up information and stopping the ones that pull the strings is the only way we can be free and safe.

It is justifiable when you are dealing with criminals. If someone commits an inhumane act on purpose, I feel that they don't deserve to be given human rights in interrogation. They deserve to be mishandled until they get information because they have committed a horrible act. In regular interrogations, I don't think torture is justifiable, though. 

"If you torture a data long enough, you can make it confess anything," according to a famous saying whose author I forgot. He is write; in order to stop the torture people are willing to say basically anything, even if it means their deaths afterwards (like the Knights Templar in France in the 14 th century).

I am still looking for convincing evidence that whatever is obtained through torture 1) is true and 2) will NOT have negative consequences afterwards. Just look at the downturn of U.S.' reputation after the pictures from tortured Irakian prisoners were published and the long-term backlash it will create (as predicted by... The Onion).

My neighbor is retired from either the FBI or the military, and even he is not too sure about the effectiveness of torture - he leans towards "if we are sure it will give us reliable information."

The problem with torture will always be that whatever information you might gather is that the information will most likely be lies that the person tortured will tell you only to escape the torture for a little while. This is why so many people were burned as self confessed witches in the olden times.

All of you pro-torture people I tell you this. No matter who you are just give me 10 minutes alone with you with tools of my choice and I swear to God you will suddenly remember you are an Isis-operative, a homosexual scat lover, three plus two is four or whatever the heck I want. And you will be so sorry and crying from remorse that you will be surprised yourself how good it feels to finally admit all your wrong doings to me. I will be your best friend and your worse enemy in an instant. But you will confess because everybody always will eventually. You just don't know it yet because I don't have your balls in a vice. Yet.

But always remember. There are no innocent, just poorly interrogated.

Since this thread was started by a plagiarized article in the first place and was created by a person that got banned for copy/pasting stuff from other sites here, I'm closing this thread. Someone else can feel free to make a new version with a proper initial post.