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Mackenzie Dorsey

Thoughts On Terror Versus Torture

Living in a new age with new war tactics is bound to bring forth a lot of controversy. This
is only natural for people to come together and demand reforms for this new day and age. The
problem is, not everyone, or every country, agrees with making new strides and progress in the
prevention of wars. Alan M. Dershowitz, author of Should We Fight Terror with Torture, gives
many different views on the topic of terrorism and torture. Our biggest threat that we face today
is attacks from terrorists groups. After 9/11, many people started forming opinions on terrorists,
and naturally, we fear this group of extremist. Humans should not be treated so inhumanely as to
be tortured. If we start a reform of torture, where will it take us? We cannot move backwards as a
society to a period when torture was a good justification for crime.
In Dershowitz writing, it is very clear that different countries have different opinions on
race and religion. For example, Americans tends to form a negative stereotypical view of Muslims due to the fact that the terrorist group that attacked on American soil on September 11th of
2001 were believed to be Muslims. This view of Muslims/terrorists in an Americans eye is toxic
because of the pain that they inflicted on us as a country. Now, we generally presume that all
Muslims are bad people, due to this incident on 9/11. Resulting from this, it is a natural defense
mechanism to capture and detain muslims that have done wrong. Dershowitz states, They cannot simply be released, because many of them would quickly volunteer to engage in suicide terrorist missions against their former captors, as some already have done. I agree with Dershowitz. We cannot release captured terrorists back in to society once they have been imprisoned

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for their crimes. I do not believe that we should release prisoners after they have been captured
for our own safety.
Since we have such harsh relations with terroristic countries, it is a largely controversial
topic as to whether or not we can allow torture to be practiced on the detainees. It has been acknowledged that water-boarding was a used torture technique. Although we have allowed this,
the President of the supreme court of Israel didnt quite agree with torture tactics. Aharon Barak
decided that torture couldnt be justified in any light. He was so strongly opinionated in this topic
that he couldnt even justify torture if it meant that it could secure information that could potentially prevent terrorism. Aharon Barak said, Preserving the Rule of Law and recognition of an
individuals liberty constitutes an important component in its understand of security. I think that
depending on where you are from, how you are raised, and what you have seen and been through
all affect your decision on whether or not you believe that torture is a correct method of interrogation. However, with all of this in mind, I personally cannot think of a more inhumane treatment for anyone, and do not believe that it is a correct method of punishment.
Dershowitzs writing was very insightful, and I genuinely enjoyed reading this analysis.
What I read really made me think about my own personal views on terrorism and torture. Honestly, this really enraged me from many different angles. To be quite honest, I know that I
wouldve been a hippie if I wouldve lived in the 1960s, only because I believe that war is such a
terrible thing. Im sad to say that I feel like we are too far gone as a nation to withdraw from our
wars. By this, I mean that we are forever going to be engaged in some type of war. It upsets me
that we even have to consider torture because there are actually people out there that have done
something torture worthy.

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I believe that the text provoked this response in me because I havent ever really read
anything quite like this. Our teachers and parents talk about what is going on in the world with
our wars, but not in this light. This writing is the cold, hard truth, and that really got to me. Dershowitz explained why we should have the right to defend ourselves because there are legitimate
terroristic threats out there. I believe that I am upset because I was so uneducated about our
rights in responses to war.
I do find my own values and assumptions reflected in the text. I have developed my opinion as to whether or not I believe that torture is a fair tactic for interrogating terrorists. Torturing
someone is a terrible act, and I agree with Aharon Barak when he decided that torture cannot be
justified. Terrorists killed thousands of people on 9/11, and have taken many lives since then as
well. The acts that these terrorist commit are unthinkable, and definitely unjust. Although it is
clear that I believe terrorists deserve some kind of punishment, I do not think that torture is the
way to carry out these hard feelings.
As a society, we have to take into consideration all of the new threats that we are facing.
Not to mention, we are no longer in the time of King Henry IV, and things have changed. Naturally, it will probably take a long time for our nation to agree on new war rules. In the end, we
need to come up with more realistic tactics for the threats that are made against our country in
this day and age. We also need to develop the understanding that we cannot move backwards as a
society and justify torture as an effective method of punishment.