chaotic_nipple (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
chaotic_nipple) wrote2008-03-28 08:51 pm
chaotic_nipple) wrote2008-03-28 08:51 pm
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Apparently, today is "Blog Against Torture Day"
It seems silly that we even need such a day, but, whatever.
So, torture is bad, see? It's completely ineffective as a means of intelligence gathering, since the victim will say whatever he thinks the torturer wants to hear, and that torturer will have no way of knowing weather the information gathered is accurate. Even in the much ballyhooed "ticking bomb" scenario, your much likelier to get inaccurate information which will result in you wasting manpower running after non-existent threats, while the real bomb continues ticking.
On the other hand, torture can be very effective as a means of ensuring compliance to authority by spreading fear. So if you think the US is really made safer by the rest of the world thinking of us as evil Ogres who rape babies while their parents are forced to watch, then I guess torture could be said to "work" after all.:-P
So, torture is bad, see? It's completely ineffective as a means of intelligence gathering, since the victim will say whatever he thinks the torturer wants to hear, and that torturer will have no way of knowing weather the information gathered is accurate. Even in the much ballyhooed "ticking bomb" scenario, your much likelier to get inaccurate information which will result in you wasting manpower running after non-existent threats, while the real bomb continues ticking.
On the other hand, torture can be very effective as a means of ensuring compliance to authority by spreading fear. So if you think the US is really made safer by the rest of the world thinking of us as evil Ogres who rape babies while their parents are forced to watch, then I guess torture could be said to "work" after all.:-P