Issue 20

From reading this article, my opinion sided with Andrew Sullivan. I don't believe in wars and so my opinion was already at the "No" side. I couldn't believe the opinion of the "Yes" side of Charles Krauthammer. First, he says "...we don't do that because we do not descened to the level of our enemy...because we are civilized. Even though terrorists are entitled to no humane treatment, we give it to them because it is in our nature as a moral and humane people." Now my question is, then what was Abu Ghraib?? Then, he talks about McCain and how his position on torture is incoherent, but what is still best for this country, and he agrees with him. I think that Charles Krauthammer has a one-sided opinion that only looks at the torture onto others that deserve it, only because they look like they could be terrorists. Also, what made me disturbed is how he made a scenerio on the first page of the "Yes" side, second to last and last paragraph. Here is a hypothetical question, yet is explained as if it happens everyday. I can understand if this situation ever came up and you knew who was planning to bomb a city, you would want to get information out of him anyway you could, but you can't just go around assuming these things, which is what they were saying earlier in the article.
The "No" article was interesting to read, especially since I agreed with what Anderw Sullivan had to say. One of my favorite lines in this piece was "Something broken can be put back together, but it will never regain the status of being unbroken--of having integrity. When you break a human being, you turn him into something subhuman. You enslave him." I think those few lines summed the whole "No" side article up. I believe that it is not right to torture people for benefits regarding yourself or other people. It is hard in a situation knowing you could save your country if you could get this information that would prevent millions dead. But the actions someone could take are more than just torture, unlike what some people may think. These peopel have options and if they don't want to look at all of them, they have to live with the pride of saving their country, yet torturing someone who never deserved the torture (if they were innocent). I just don't believe that anyone deserves punishment like that to experience.