Torture

Hello! Just as a side note, I want all of you to know that using torture as a means of interrogation is wrong regardless of the information that the witness may hold. While reading my daily political websites, I have noticed that a lot of the torture debate is spent deciding if torture is illegal or not. I think the legality of it matters not; it is immoral. In response to this interview between Liz Cheney and Eugene Robinson, Justmy2 from the Daily Kos had the following to say:

Video:

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Daily Kos:

“The saddest part was that none of these people were willing to forcefully say the we shouldn’t torture people in any case. Apparently, according to Mika and Mike, if polls say Americans are willing to torture people, that means the President has the right to act illegally. Apparently, we are no longer a nation of laws, we are nation of polls and our leaders can do anything as long as they can convince the public that the end justifies the means.”

This bothers me because it means that our democratic nature is telling us that it is ok to put men and women through extreme physical torture under two conditions: 1.) It makes your life better, and 2.) Your buddies all agree it is a good idea. This mindset is leading us down a dark and dangerous path. Eventually we will try and justify all of our actions by the ends they achieve and this will lead to a complete lack of morality. It will be ok for a man to beat his wife, if it meant she would never cheat on him again. It will be ok for a wife to cheat on her husband, if it meant that he would pay more attention to her. It will be ok to abuse your kids, if it meant they will get better grades in school. This slippery slope warning was also given by a little brown sage in India over 70 years ago. Gandhi argued that Indian independence was very important, but not without Hind Swaraj, or Home Rule. Home rule, as Gandhi saw it, was the ability for Indians to properly care for themselves. He wanted to establish a network of communities that spun their own clothing, harvested their own food, and did not believe in discrimination. He knew that independence was very important, but it was useless if it was achieved through violence. He proposed a new method called Satyagraha which involved achieving independence through Home Rule. He would fully understand that achieving something a sacred as national security was pointless if we did it through the means of torture. I believe it is high time we all understand this. I leave you with one of my favorite quotes by Ben Franklin:

“Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.”