Friday, May 8, 2009
Poll finds lack of support for 'torture' investigations
Throughout the semester, we discussed the use of torture to produce a confession in the context of Scarry's book and in the Bush administrations approach to combating the War on Terror. It has been debated whether this use of torture was effective and appropriate. Though the torture appears to have been ineffective and did not carry the support of the American public, the attached article from CNN, titled Poll finds lack of support for 'torture' investigations shows that Americans do not support investigations into that use of torture. As a result of this public opinion, are we, as Americans, suggesting that torture is acceptable? If the roles were reversed and a foreign power used these same means of torture on American citizens, would we accept a foreign public opinion that torture investigations did not need to be conducted?
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You make a good point. What does this tell us about the majority of the American position on US-led torture? This makes me wonder if our media/entertainment is part responsible for the way we (American society as a whole) regard the use of violence. Shows like 24 and combatant video games, while entertaining and riveting, also glorify violent acts. It seems that these pop culture influences produce generations that are more accepting toward torture or extreme violent measures to get what we, rightful Americans, want/need.
ReplyDeleteThen you make another good point when you asked how this accepting attitude toward torture would be if the situation were in reverse. When it is not an American body condemned to this violence (particularly referring to government sanctioned torture), it seems that the general consensus finds justification in that whatever injurious act NEEDS to be done. However if the tortured body in question is an American or other Western-nation the (Western) world is up in arms to cease this from happening. I think this tells a lot about how Americans regard and ascertain value to certain bodies over others.