China/Washington DC - Five years after 9/11, a major reason why no such atrocity has been repeated in the U.S., I believe, is because the Bush administration has applied "tough, safe, lawful and necessary" interrogation methods, as President Bush called them, on captured terrorists.
Aggressive questioning aimed at saving lives is morally distinct from the infliction of physical harm for punishment. I agree with Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer that in this real world of astonishingly murderous enemies, we must all be prepared to torture, under certain rare circumstances, such as trying to stop a ticking time bomb.
Torture as a normal, routine practice must of course be banned. The United Nations would seem to be a natural place to mobilize the global community to stop torture. Unfortunately, like many other U.N. initiatives, it hasn't been the case with torture. A startling example took place in China at the end of last year when Manfred Nowak, the first U.N. rapporteur on torture, was allowed to visit the country. Mr. Nowak, whose fact-finding mission was obstructed by government officials, concluded that torture remains widespread in China even though Beijing outlawed such practices in 1996.
The answer, ultimately, lies in the hope that the spread of democracy will change the behavior of the current offenders. This may sound self-defeating but I don't think online forums like this one can do much to make a difference.
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