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America must not Legalize Torture |
Edict Date 09-07-2006
On September 6th 2006 American President Bush gave a speech promoting the use of secret prisons where people are tortured. Although he said that what is done there isn't torture, he has a unique definition of torture and he seeks to get Congress to pass a law to allow it. Bush is asking Congress to:
- give him authorization to allow the President and the CIA to continue to run a network of secret torture camps.
- give people who use torture immunity from being prosecuted for committing war crimes.
- allow the President and the CIA to violate the Geneva Conventions relating to torture, inhumane treatment, and to deny access to prisoners and inspections by international organizations such as the Red Cross.
- redefine the legal meaning of torture and inhumane treatment to create the illusion that torture and inhumane treatment are lawful.
Our philosophy is that torture is always wrong and should never be legalized under any circumstances. Torture is the tool of the barbarian and it has no place in modern civilization. To legalize torture is a crime against humanity. No civilized society can ever knowingly allow torture to be sanctioned for any purpose whatsoever. Torture is just plain evil.
When a nation such as America makes torture acceptable, then they are sending the world a message that behaving like a barbarian is acceptable. To accept that we can torture others is to accept that others can torture us. It also increases hatred towards Americans and it becomes a recruitment tool for terrorists to build their forces. They seize on our moral weakness as a reason to fight and kill us. It also make brutality acceptable and leads to the widespread use of torture throughout the world. Torture undermines civilization and is contrary to our Principle of Positive Evolution.
Not only is torture counter-productive as a tactic because it rallies more enemies against us, but it is an unreliable method for extracting information from the victim. A person being tortured will say what he or she thinks the torturer wants to hear, true or not. Furthermore, it makes monsters out of the torturer, twisting their psyche and warping their values. It is a crime to facilitate the kind of person who is attracted to that kind of brutal behavior, or to order a person who wouldn't otherwise countenance such evil to participate in it. Realists are urged to actively resist any attempts to legitimize any form of torture under any conditions.
President Bush has been advocating the redefinition of torture for several years now. The last time he tried to redefine torture, it led to the Abu Ghraib scandal, which enraged the Islamic world and led to another generation rising up against the "Great Satan". America is not the Great Satan, but if we pass laws legalizing torture we could turn into one and the rest of the world would be justified in rising up against us. We must therefore resist the temptation to degenerate into becoming barbarians and bringing the rest of the world down to a barbarian level. The idea that America would even entertain the idea of legalizing torture is absolute madness.
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