Caitlin Yarsky

In the midst of untruth, we have allowed fear to transcend all notions of morality, ethics, and humanity. Principles man has attempted to hold true since his dawn, such as “do not steal, do not murder, do not torture,” are messages heard across all religions, denominations, and ideologies. Jesus, Buddha, Gandhi, King, and numerous others preached that violence is never justified, yet we find ourselves once again standing on the edge of the pitfall of history. Still, the opportunity remains to take a step back and realize what we will become still remains. Otherwise, we will fall down history’s trap and repeat the acts of atrocity which have plagued mankind.

This is not to say that consequentialist arguments do not deserve consideration, or that the “ticking time bomb” scenario is a time where torture could be considered. However, modern liberal governments, with their vast resources and immense wealth, have barely given a second thought to the political and military tactics at their disposal to avoid the use of torture. Even then, I must object to the notion of institutionalizing torture, precisely for the reason that because it will spread like hellfire. Take a look at the Abu Ghraib Prison scandal, where you have the military which is bound to the Geneva Convention and the CIA, Special Operations Forces (SOF), and private contractors, all three of whom employ questionable “interrogation tactics” (which anyone of reason would call torture) all operating in the same prison. The legal mandates that restrained the military from engaging in the same practices as the CIA, SOF, and contractors did not prevent the mentality of torture from spreading to amongst the military forces. If we were to institutionalize the use of torture, would the mentality augment to something that we would only have seen in the Khmer Rouge, Nazi Germany, or Stalinist Russia?

The war has put us into a mentality of “us,” the good guys, and “them,” the scary terrorists. This type of thinking has made us forget that on the other side of the world are not the eyes of Satan staring at us, but instead the eyes of other human beings. We see terrorists as abject, not as people, yet not inanimate enough to call them objects. Allowing ourselves to not see our enemies as human will only make it easy for us to commit the atrocities we wanted to prevent in the first place.

We will only have hell to pay for the wrongs we commit, and history will make sure we pay our dues. Would it be desirable to open legal torture chambers? While the cost of human lives is repugnant in and of itself, would the barbarity of removing ourselves from morality, ethics, and humanity be overwhelmed by the cost of human lives? Could we keep ourselves from falling into the pitfall of history, or will we act under the banality of evil?