Abstract

What Is Wrong With Torture

The article discusses the reasons why torture is wrong. The war in Iraq has given birth to an issue that may one day be seen as more important than the war, the question of torture. Now the vote whether to confirm White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General will very likely be the key vote in regard to torture. In a memo to the President, Gonzales advised that the Geneva Conventions did not apply either to Al Qaeda or Taliban soldiers in Afghanistan. He opined that if the conventions were set aside by the President, any soldiers accused under the U.S. War Crimes Act might defend themselves against the charges of having committed war crimes under U.S. Code Section 2441 of American law. Can this nation now understand pain only if it is experienced by Americans or, through some chain of consequences, it rebounds upon the United States? Torture is not wrong because someone else thinks it is wrong or because others, in retaliation for torture by Americans, may torture Americans. Torture is wrong because it inflicts unspeakable pain upon the body of a fellow human being who is entirely at our mercy.