This week, President Obama finally announced formal plans to shut down the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, fulfilling promises he made to the country years ago, proving it’s never too late for a good thing.
This announcement came mere days after Republican nomination candidate and renowned television clown Donald Trump voiced his support for torture techniques. Guantanamo Bay has for years interned individuals considered dangers to the livelihood of Americans. These prisoners were often tortured in order to obtain wanted information.
Data from a 2014 Washington Post-ABC News poll shows the majority of Americans think that torture is justifiable if it obtains valuable information from terrorists. Frighteningly, more Americans will support Trump’s rhetoric on torture this week than Obama’s action on ending it.
Torture is wrong, from moralistic, legal and intelligence-gathering standpoints.
Inflicting harsh pain onto a prisoner who has no means of defending him or herself is a massive human rights violation, regardless of the status of the prisoner. It is despicable that a nation that considers itself the leader of the world would ever actively engage in such an evil human rights violation. It is even more frightening that citizens support it.
The Constitution prohibits cruel and unusual punishment in the Eighth Amendment. Torture is undeniably cruel and unusual. Torture, by definition, involves inflicting severe pain, which easily fulfills the cruel factor of making it a constitutional violation. Torture is unusual because it is waged upon atypical prisoners of the United States, in atypical circumstances.
A 2014 report by the Senate Intelligence Committee provides evidence that torture is useless for its intended purpose, making it even more immoral and cruel. Some of the findings in the report include that torture is “not an effective means of acquiring intelligence” and “complicated, and in some cases impeded, national security missions.” The entire justification for torture is that degrading a few will protect the many, but solid evidence shows this is not true.
This is not the only source that claims torture is ineffective. The US Army Field Manual on Interrogation, which intends to inform soldiers on how to properly interrogate, dubs torture a pointless technique.
The use of torture in Guantanamo Bay has been one of the biggest mortifications in the United States throughout the new millennium. However late into his term it may be, President Obama should be applauded for his work to shut down the internment facility in Guantanamo Bay.
American’s views on torture are worrying. They understandably stem from fears of terrorism. Fear will never justify torture and actively engaging in or supporting it makes Americans just like the terrorists they claim to want to destroy.
Americans need to become educated on the immoral pointlessness of torture. Our current president has taken important steps in ending its practice, and our next president should be one who continues the process, not reverses it.
Corey Krajewski is Opinions Editor of the Bona Venture.
His email is krajewcj15@bonaventure.edu
