Wrongful Torture

The issue is not so much has the United States committed wrongful torture, but has it committed torture at all. All torture is wrongful, so to label it as such is unnecessary. The Geneva Convention forbids torture, and though there is an exception to this, it still states that “…persons shall nevertheless be treated with humanity” (GCIV Article 5). So if there was any torture going on, it was legally and morally wrong. In the last several years the United States has committed torture. There is proof of this, and though some try to deny that any torture has been committed, it has been. Those who say wrongful torture has not been committed would argue that those who were tortured had information that we needed, or that it was necessary to keep order. These statements may be true, but that does not give the United States a right to torture. There are other ways to extract information and keep order, and there was no need to resort to torture. There is also the argument that other countries have tortured Americans, so it is okay for the United States to use torture. This statement is nonsensical. One group’s bad behavior does not sanction the United States to do the same. Torture is always wrongful, so any torture that the United States has done has been wrongful torture. There is irrefutable evidence of torture committed by the United States, and while it may not have been government approved it still happened, American citizens torturing others, which in turn means that the United States has committed wrongful torture.