Torture vs. Sanctity of Life
I posted my entry “Policing Terrorism” to my blog on MySpace. A friend of mine wrote an interesting reply. This friend (I’ll call him ‘Jose’) is a Peruvian expatriate with much pride in both the United States and Peru. He is also a third-year law student.
Jose wrote to say that to his knowledge, Peru was the only country to eliminate terrorism. Because I know of no statistics myself, I won’t challenge his veracity. He went on to say that the leader in charge of this miraculous cleansing was now being charged with violating the human rights of a terrorist group. Jose tells story to back his belief that “terrorists rights should be waived,” saying that “caring for the terrorists who are being tortured . . . would be ridiculous.”
I have always known Jose to be compassionate, and his logic to be sound (hence his future career in law). So I can only imagine it is his Peruvian pride that impairs him now. I ask, what is so ridiculous about caring for another human being? It is one thing to uphold the law and bring about an appropriate means of discipline, but to stop respecting the sanctity of life is a crime against God.
In the history of our country, no matter what a criminal has done, he is still treated humanely. Why would we treat terrorists any differently than rapists or child molesters? Who’s to say which crime is worse?
As trite as it sounds, I like to think, what would God do to these people? They would be punished, surely, but I hardly believe tortured. But the fact is that beyond upholding the laws of the land, our responsibility stops there. God will punish all those who do wrong, and if we needlessly torture another human being, we will see our punishment as well.
Jose wrote to say that to his knowledge, Peru was the only country to eliminate terrorism. Because I know of no statistics myself, I won’t challenge his veracity. He went on to say that the leader in charge of this miraculous cleansing was now being charged with violating the human rights of a terrorist group. Jose tells story to back his belief that “terrorists rights should be waived,” saying that “caring for the terrorists who are being tortured . . . would be ridiculous.”
I have always known Jose to be compassionate, and his logic to be sound (hence his future career in law). So I can only imagine it is his Peruvian pride that impairs him now. I ask, what is so ridiculous about caring for another human being? It is one thing to uphold the law and bring about an appropriate means of discipline, but to stop respecting the sanctity of life is a crime against God.
In the history of our country, no matter what a criminal has done, he is still treated humanely. Why would we treat terrorists any differently than rapists or child molesters? Who’s to say which crime is worse?
As trite as it sounds, I like to think, what would God do to these people? They would be punished, surely, but I hardly believe tortured. But the fact is that beyond upholding the laws of the land, our responsibility stops there. God will punish all those who do wrong, and if we needlessly torture another human being, we will see our punishment as well.
posted by Anonymous at 4/05/2006 03:04:00 PM
3 Comments:
The real question is: To what length should the government go in order to find the terrorist leaders?
How do we get information out of a terrorist?
What if that information will save the lives of thousands of Americans?
Is it worth destroying our ideals in order to save thousands of lives?
On the new Battlestar Galactica, Admiral Adama argues that it is not enough for the human race to survive - the human race must be worthy of surviving. I think the same holds true for democracy in general and America in particular.
Re punishment: If you believe in god: whatever the terrorists do is god's will. What ever we do to the terrorists is god's will. That is a breakdown in logic vs. culpability which necessitates a secular judiciary/executive.
-M
What we do to prisoners will dictate what other countries do to our prisoners.
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