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Jewish World Review Feb. 28, 2005 / 19 Adar I, 5765 The ethics of torture: Real life is lived on the slippery slope By George Friedman
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Torture, once something we expected to hear about in a Third World country, has become a critical policy issue in the United States. Senior government officials are writing memos on the subject. The kind of simplistic shouting we have come to expect on all sides of all issues has come to torture. There is something absurd in thinking about torture: It is impossible not to think about it — and when you do, it is never simple.
Some say that torture is never justified. But assume for a moment that it were discovered that a nuclear device was planted in an American city, due to detonate in 12 hours. Someone was arrested who certainly knew where the bomb was located. He wouldn't talk. It would seem to me that any course other than torturing the man would be the height of immorality. Making an absolute argument against torture would mean that the lives of tens of thousands were worth less than the rights of this one man. I personally couldn't accept that.
Consider another example. Assume that a person was arrested who did not know where the bomb was, but did know the location of the man who did know and wouldn't reveal it. Would that torture be acceptable? It's a little less clear, but the same principle would hold.
Assume that there were 10 people who might know the location of the person who knew where the bomb was. All claimed not to know, but one certainly did. Would torturing all 10 to get the truth be justified? If torturing one person to save tens of thousands is justified, why not 10?
Let's say that the number were 100, and let's say that it wasn't a nuclear device — but rather there was a rumor that a car bomb might have been planted. Would torturing all 100 people be justified to save several hundred?
Going further down the slippery slope, let's say that there was a group of terrorists who were thought to be planning a strike. Would torturing anyone captured to find others be acceptable?
In reality, the circumstances in which torture takes place are never clear-cut. Life is lived further down the slippery slope. The problem with the slope is that, eventually, you slide down it to become the monster you were supposed to be fighting. On the other hand, to simply assert that torture is never justified is morally absurd. Surely in the first case, torture is obligatory. If you are willing to let a city die rather than torture a single person, you have become a moral monster just as surely as if you were randomly torturing innocent people.
Those who are charged with keeping the United States secure live on that slippery slope. They have to make decisions. They have to act on uncertainties. They have to live in a world of uncertain facts and justified terrors. They know that whatever decision they make will be reviewed meticulously by others who did not bear that burden. It is easy to be moral when you have no obligations, no responsibilities and no one depending on you. It is much more difficult to know how to make moral decisions in the real world of U.S. intelligence and security.
The debate over torture has developed a cartoon-like quality. On the one side, the view is, "Rip their guts out. If the detainees turn out not to know anything, they should be grateful to have served a just cause." On the other side, there are those who condemn torture in all its forms everywhere. I wonder if they would hold such a view if torture could save the life of one of their children.
In the philosophy class, the newspaper column and the coffee shop, these are interesting topics to discuss. Out in the war, where men and women make snap decisions that could affect all of our lives, things are more difficult and opaque. I would not like to be a man called upon to draft a memo on torture that others must follow. Nor would I care to be a man who had to make a decision on whether to torture someone. But I have little respect for the simplistic arguments — on both sides — that have framed the torture issue. Real life is much more complicated than that.
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George Friedman is chairman of Strategic Forecasting, Inc., dubbed by Barron's as "The Shadow CIA," it's one of the world's leading global intelligence firms, providing clients with geopolitical analysis and industry and country forecasts to mitigate risk and identify opportunities. Stratfor's clients include Fortune 500 companies and major governments.
© 2005 TMS
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