Bradbury: Rendition

Is torture appropriate in any situation? Looking at history, one would have to say yes since it has been used since the dawn of war. It was popular even amongst the catholic church during the spanish inquisition. Thomas Moore, renowned as a saint, tortured heretics in the name of England. Today, people that agree with torture see it as a necessary evil. The United States of America's official position is that they do not torture. They do, however, perform acts of "extraordinary rendition". They essentially kidnap suspected terrorists and hand them over to the control of countries that do torture. Former CIA agent Robert Baer was quoted saying:"If you want a serious interrogation, you send a prisoner to Jordan. If you want them to be tortured, you send them to Syria. If you want someone to disappear -- never to see them again -- you send them to Egypt." Water boarding is a type of torture commonly used on prisoners. It is a simulated drowning  . One reported for the NY times subjected himself to water boarding for the sake of reporting. Paraphrasing, he stated it was the worst experience of his life and no human should be subjected to it. WHile we do not see water boarding being used in the film, we see other tactics such as electrocution. The prisoner in the movie is accurately depicted in relation to what actually happens. The prisoner was stripped naked, relieved of sight and sound, and psychologically broken down. I do not think this should happen to anyone. Especially if its done by the United States, who are a bastion of freedom and believe in due process. If we are truly a democracy, then why can the government take people secretly without our knowledge and without our say-so? There are other ways to extract information other than torture. It has been proven that being civil to prisoners has extracted more information than torture. Jake Gylennhall in the film states that if you torture one person you make 10, 100, 1000 more enemies. This means that victims of torture wil give up random names just to be relieved of pain.