Torture In The Military

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The U.S. Military tends to be incredibly popularized in this country. We view every soldier as a hero, and praise them for all of their hard work they’ve served. Which they most definitely deserve, because they’re willingly putting their lives on the line to defend our country. It takes a lot of courage to volunteer to put your own life at risk, and for that many people deeply appreciate them. Yet very few people know of or acknowledge the cruel military tactics that are used in secrecy.
There’s a hot topic of debate regarding the U.S. Military, which is the “enhanced” interrogation techniques that are being utilized. These techniques have been established as permissible by our government. It’s been argued whether these interrogation methods …show more content…
Basically torture can be broken down into two sub categories: punitive and interrogational. Santucci (2008) defines interrogational torture as having the intent of extracting information that is considered pertinent to a higher cause from the detainee. This is the type of torture that would describe the purpose of its use by the U. S. in the War on Terror. Punitive torture is used to discipline or persuade the opinions of someone or a group of people (Santucci, 2008). This type of torture is most likely used by terrorist groups to manipulate a ruling power or force. Both of these types could involve the same types of torture but interrogational would most likely be viewed as more “moral” torture since the results and reasons would be provided to the public by a larger propaganda as necessary for the promotion of a noble cause or society in …show more content…
The most severe type of method could consist of physically or mentally damaging the person permanently, and the intent to end the person’s life. Wolfendale (2009) describes torture lite as a torture tactic that doesn’t physically harm or mutilate the detainee. Instead it’s torture that consists of forced standing (stress positions), sleep deprivation, manipulation of room temperature to make it uncomfortably hot or cold, isolation, bombardment of noise, mock execution, and personal humiliation. This “torture lite” method is currently used in the War on Terror by the U.S. Our government likes to call it “enhanced interrogation” to make it sound less inhumane and cruel. Interestingly enough, this term is the American version of the phrase that the Nazi’s used when they used these similar torture methods (Hunsinger, 2008). This idea of torture lite is crucial for this topic, because the use of these techniques is quite popular among governments (including the United States) to avoid angry responses from organizations that deal with Human Rights. It’s also popular because it makes it extremely difficult to prove that the torture even took place, because of the lack of physical evidence. The only evidence that could be provided is the statement of the detainee who endured it, which isn’t enough. When there isn’t any physical evidence of the torture that took place it’s easier to justify
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