Believe Me It's Torture Analysis

A signatory to the UN Convention Against Torture, the United States “does not torture.” Yet abundant evidence indicates that it does, directly or by proxy—and in fact always has. An old American tradition of state-sponsored torture even has its own lexicon: SOA, Kubark, Phoenix, MK-Ultra, rendition, CIA’s “no-touch” paradigm, etc. It is quite popular, too. Torture enjoys more than twice the public support in the US that it does in France, Spain, and the UK.

As this article mentions many people do believe that torture works as nobody could resist the physical and mental torture people are put through. In reality most successful cases have been done by psychology experts using other methods. They used human knowledge and applied it to the interrogation. Moskalenko, Sophia. " Great Minds Think Alike: Psychology Of An Effective Interrogation."

In Michael Levin’s “The Case for Torture”, he uses many cases of emotional appeal to persuade the reader that torture is necessary in extreme cases. There are many terms/statements that stick with the reader throughout the essay so that they will have more attachment to what is being said. Levin is particularly leaning to an audience based in the United States because he uses an allusion to reference an event that happened within the states and will better relate to the people that were impacted by it. The emotional appeals used in this essay are used for the purpose of persuading the reader to agree that in extreme instances torture is necessary and the United States should begin considering it as a tactic for future cases of extremity. One major eye catching factor of this essay is the repetitive use of words that imply certain stigmas.

In Michael Levin's The Case for Torture, Levin provides an argument in which he discusses the significance of inflicting torture to perpetrators as a way of punishment. In his argument, he dispenses a critical approach into what he believes justifies torture in certain situations. Torture is assumed to be banned in our culture and the thought of it takes society back to the brutal ages. He argues that societies that are enlightened reject torture and the authoritative figure that engage in its application risk the displeasure of the United States. In his perspective, he provides instances in which wrongdoers put the lives of innocent people at risk and discusses the aspect of death and idealism.

The Torture of Waterboarding: Brave heroic actions bring awareness to the fact waterboarding is torture. In Christopher Hitchens “Believe Me, Its Torture”, Hitchens describes his experience with waterboarding to convince society this practice is indeed a torturous punishment. The maltreatment practice of “waterboarding” has been controversial for many years; therefore, in order to convince the audience, the matter is torturous, Christopher Hitchens undergoes this practice not only once but twice. The author uses his personal experience to illustrate the mental, physical and emotional stress he went through during the process.

"Enhanced Interrogation" is a term that was introduced by the George W. Bush administration. This type of investigation includes physically forcible interventions, such as waterboarding, sleep deprivation, facial slapping, forced standing for days and so on. Torture has been an argument for a long time to fight terrorism, but it is a bigger issue, especially after the incident of September 11, 2001. And still, it is not over that we should use "Enhanced Interrogation" or not. The techniques that are utilized in this type of investigation they are unethically and morally wrong, but they work.

According to redress.org torture is the intentional harsh physical or mental pain or else suffering for purposes such as causing fear or intimidation, obtaining information or a declaration of guilt, it is being punished for any reason based on unfairness. (www.redress.org/information-for-survivors/what-is-torture). According to wikipedia.org National Security is an idea that a government, along with its senate, should protect the state and its citizens against all kind of "national" crises through a variety of power projections, such as political power, economic power, military might and diplomacy. (https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Profession) Torture in national security is justifiable because it is a way of extracting important information

Under fairness ethics, it is not fair for the torturer to deal with these consequences. To better understand fairness turn the tables around and determine if the same treatment is justifiable. Think about the invasion in Iraq, what if an Iraqis capture an American? Should Iraqis torture the American in efforts to learn which areas in Iraq need evacuation to save lives (Mayerfeld 2008)? Individuals would not be hesitant to defend the American’s rights and oppose torturing him This biased opinion develops only the basis of who is the victim. Hence, emphasizing the lack of equality when evaluating the morality of using torture.

While analyzing “The Torture Myth” and “The Case for Torture”, it is very clear to see the type of rhetorical appeals used to persuade the audience. Anne Applebaum, the writer of “The Torture Myth” --in context of the decision of electing a new Attorney General--would argue that torture is very seldomly effective, violates a person’s rights, and should be outlawed due to the irrational need upon which physical torture is used. On the other hand, Michael Levin strongly argues that physical torture is crucial to solving every imminent danger to civilians. Levin claims that if you don’t physically torture someone, you are being weak and want to allow innocent people to die over something that could have been simply done.

He is stating that torture should be allowed with rules instead of just torturing somebody to the extreme for some information. In the text it says, " We know, for example, if Sheikh Khalid Mohammed, a very high value detainee, was subjected to waterboarding. That is, he was placed on a board, his head was put into the water, near drowning experiences were inflicted on

Mahatma Gandhi, the preeminent leader of the Indian independence movement states “You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind.” This is important because torture is brutal on the body and mind. The article “Torture’s Terrible Toll” by John McCain is more convincing then the article “The Case for Torture” by Michael Levin because McCain provides more logical reasoning, he adds his own personal experience of being a captured prisoner during the Vietnam War, and he creates an emotional bond with people around the world. Through more logical reasoning McCain Argument is more valid than Levin.

There is space for arguments to determine to what extent torture can be accepted as the right choice of action and to what extent this is not applicable. One of the core features of this essay is that here

The depiction of torture as the only form of interrogation hurts the

In Christopher Hitchens, “Believe Me, Its Torture”, Hitchens describes his experience with waterboarding with the purpose of convincing society that this practice is indeed a torturous punishment. The maltreatment practice of “waterboarding” has been controversial for many years; therefore, in order to convince the audience that waterboarding is torturous, Christopher Hitchens undergoes this practice not only once, but twice. The author uses his personal experience to illustrate the mental, physical, and emotional stress he goes through during the process. In Christopher Hitchens, “Believe Me, Its Torture”, Hitchens effectively uses pathos and logos as well as many different rhetorical strategies to persuade society that waterboarding is not acceptable; that it is cruel and unusual punishment.

Aside from being an information retriever, some people believe that torture can be used as an extra form of punishment for those that they believe death would be too swift and easy. In the eyes of many, torture is still seen as an important tool. Sometimes, interrogators do not ask all the right questions to get the entire truth out of an individual. With torture, the person being tortured tends to give up more information that was currently inquired by the interrogator. This often leads to more information that to locations of items and