Commentary: Does torturing of terrorists work?
<p class="p1">First, let me make this very clear, I have never been tortured by an enemy to reveal sensitive information.</p><p class="p2">However, when I was in the military, some of the training in the field I was in prepared us in the event we were ever captured and put in that position.</p><p class="p2">It was stressed to us that everyone has a breaking point if in captivity and would reveal crucial information if torture techniques were employed. We were told to use deception and misguide the interrogators for as long as we possibly could until the pain became unbearable.</p><p class="p2">No matter how dedicated to preserving any secrets, we were told we would eventually reveal everything they wanted to know.</p><p class="p2">I heard Senator John McCain say recently that torture doesn't work. I read his book about his military imprisonment in a Vietnamese prison of war camp and he definitely was tortured. You would think he ought to know whether it works or not.</p><p class="p2">The Geneva Convention bans the use of violence of life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture.</p><p class="p2">The Convention Against Torture only applies on a country's own soil, which is why torture of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay was legally acceptable after the 9/11 attack. </p><p class="p2">Yes, our Central Intelligence Agency did admit to using torture tactics following the 2001 unprovoked terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon. This included a technique called "waterboarding," sleep deprevation and continual loud music.</p><p class="p2">Did it work? It depends on who you listen to. The CIA claims it did and the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee's torture report released recently said it didn't.</p><p class="p2"> If one American life was saved through these means, was it worth it? </p><p class="p2">Former Vice President Dick Cheney has said recently he would do it all over again to prevent another terrorist attack.</p><p class="p2">In a recent poll taken in America, 71 percent of the people polled believed torture techniques should be used on terrorists.</p><p class="p2">Despite this, the United States, along with several other countries, has agreed not to use torture techniques anymore.</p><p class="p2">My point to this whole story is why was this matter even investigated to begin with? It's a moot point if we have agreed not to allow those methods in the future.</p><p class="p2">It was estimated that $5 million was spent investigating this. If we aren't allowed to do this anymore, then why even investigate it? This is water under the bridge. It would seem like there are a lot more areas we could spend this kind of money on than something like this.</p><p class="p2"> This committee could have put some of those Americans responsible for torture in the terrorists' cross hairs. Remember, you are dealing with some very sick individuals when you look at the beheading tactics of the ISIS terrorists organization.</p><p class="p2">These people don't deal with a full deck and are not considered the norm of any society.</p>