The comic book villainous president Trump has just spoken about how he believes that torture works.
The first thing to point out is that it is widely acknowledged that there is no evidence to show that it works, and anecdotally the torturer is in severe danger of hearing what she wants to hear from the victim. In other words the gut feeling that it ought to work is not to be trusted.
Secondly, torture is prohibited under international law. Now we know that the US is in the habit of showing the finger to the international community – if the US were not so powerful, they would be labelled a “rogue state”. Just look at a list of the nations that utilise torture – it’s one of the key indicators of a bad state.
Finally, torture is wrong. Under all circumstances it is wrong. You do not “win” over terrorists by descending to their level!
