There is much debate about whether we should use torture at times, but I for one do not support the use of torture; however, I do disagree with some regarding what torture IS. Torture cannot mean just the infliction of pain or even pain that would be rightly considered inhumane in other situations. Some interrogative techniques may be considered excessive or torture if employed during peace times to gain quotidian information, or if utilized for minor infractions, or for revenge; however, those same techniques may in fact be the most compassionate techniques to apply during wartimes or anytime when countless innocent lives may be saved by doing so.
When evaluating what constitutes torture, one must consider the following: How can a person who could shoot a terrorist that is running toward a crowded building strapped with a bomb not use waterboarding to get information that can stop a terrorist from doing such? How is it compassionate to refrain from waterboarding if there is a probability of saving innocent lives? To me that is a misdirected compassion.
We are told that practices such as waterboarding do not always result in usable information, but that is simply the fallacy of the tyranny of the perfect; a technique does not have to work perfectly to be a viable option.
I for one want the interrogators to use every method available that is not truly inhumane in order to save innocent people from wanton destruction. Too often our compassion is misdirected toward the prisoner and not the victim, or toward the terrorist but not the terrorist’s target.
Additionally, shouldn’t Christians consider possible spiritual realities? For example, the terrorist should be given a chance to repent, but shouldn’t we also seek to grant that same opportunity to his intended victims?
Enhanced interrogation such as waterboarding helped get information from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Abu Faraj al-Libi that aided in finding and killing bin Laden.
Here is a suggested definition: Enhanced interrogation is the measured use of intense techniques that do not violate the following limits, but do allow for the possibility of death in a non-torturous way–this is war.
Here are some suggested guidelines:
- TORTURE PRINCIPLES
- Avoid intentional excessive physical harm
- Consider offering repentance opportunities to the terrorist and the terrorized
- Avoid intentional permanent physical damage
- Use a scale to measure appropriate intensity based upon potential harm and value of information
- Use temporary trauma, e.g. waterboarding
- Use threat particular to the person without lying. Disinformation is not torture
