identify individuals that have been presumed as terrorists. Few confirmed terrorists actually come out of this process of identifying suspected terrorists, yet they all still have to go through hours of interrogation and torment. For example, in the two and a half years following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, U.S. intelligence agencies arrested more than five thousand suspected terrorists. There was sufficient hard evidence to bring formal charges against only three of these suspects and only one of these three was convicted (Scarry, 2005). As long as torture is an option for interrogating a suspect, it is inevitable that many innocent people will be tormented and have to live with that, suffering for the rest of their lives.
Although there are different practices for torture. A common one is known as waterboarding. Waterboarding is a method of water torture where water is poured over a
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Torture is not possible without the brutalisation of the torturer; you must ‘lose your soul’ if you are to save the victims. (Pfiffner, 2005: 20; Mayer, 2005) “To torture requires us to overcome our socially conditioned abhorrence of violence and to accept the psychological repercussions.” (Shue, 1978: 130) If torture becomes approved, then the supposed guilt felt by the torturer is weakened. Since the act is no longer illegal it will justify his actions and so reduces the level of guilt, and in turn this in contrary affects for what is seen as moral. If no guilt is felt then one cannot feel he has committed an immoral act. The argument supporting legally sanctioned torment fails to notice the other suffering that is done; the harmful psychological and social ramifications endured by people who must practice and follow through with torture. When someone is expected to torture others it can become very problematic morally for that