DeletedUser50332
Guest
I am very concerned that there are people who seem to think that it is acceptable to treat other people as being less than human, no matter what the excuse! The starting point, or first principle, should be that all people are treated as humans; treated with humanity.
We should be very wary of any claim that states that if someone has committed an extreme criminal act, then they should no longer be considered human. Terrorists are human too. One of the best examples of my point has to be Nelson Mandela. Now, most people around the world would say that this person, who won the nobel prize for peace, is a nice guy. But this is forgetting that he led a guerilla and terrorist campaign.
In more recent years in Syria, it is alleged that the Asad regime was oppressive, and so some Syrians rose up in opposition to the Asad regime. The West then backed those groups who opposed Asad. Those opposition groups splintered, and a space was created for an armed religious group to flourish. In Iraq, a power vaccum likewise allowed for the group who became known as ISIS to develop. So, they along with other opposition groups started out by wanting to oppose what they perceived as an oppressive regime.
Now before anyone jumps down my throat, I am NOT trying to justify ISIS or their brutal and heneous acts of terror and torture, which I abhor. What I am trying to do is to highlight that these situations are not straight forward.
Some of the above comments are also concerning because they seem to assume that all government regimes are legitimate, and as such are legitimate in using force and violence (torture) for the 'greater good'. I dont think hat I need to list all of the oppressive regimes around the world, but there are constant infringements of people's human rights taking place by governments across the globe.
The point that I am trying to get across is that the whole issue is far from straight forward. We cannot lose a sense of treating all people as humans. And bringing it back to the topic, instead of trying to make justifications for it, the starting point HAS to be that torture is morally wrong. However, there are occassions when governments justify that they needed to torture someone in order to secure vital, life-saving information. What they are doing is justifying a moral wrong, it does not suddenly convert it into a moral right!
We should be very wary of any claim that states that if someone has committed an extreme criminal act, then they should no longer be considered human. Terrorists are human too. One of the best examples of my point has to be Nelson Mandela. Now, most people around the world would say that this person, who won the nobel prize for peace, is a nice guy. But this is forgetting that he led a guerilla and terrorist campaign.
In more recent years in Syria, it is alleged that the Asad regime was oppressive, and so some Syrians rose up in opposition to the Asad regime. The West then backed those groups who opposed Asad. Those opposition groups splintered, and a space was created for an armed religious group to flourish. In Iraq, a power vaccum likewise allowed for the group who became known as ISIS to develop. So, they along with other opposition groups started out by wanting to oppose what they perceived as an oppressive regime.
Now before anyone jumps down my throat, I am NOT trying to justify ISIS or their brutal and heneous acts of terror and torture, which I abhor. What I am trying to do is to highlight that these situations are not straight forward.
Some of the above comments are also concerning because they seem to assume that all government regimes are legitimate, and as such are legitimate in using force and violence (torture) for the 'greater good'. I dont think hat I need to list all of the oppressive regimes around the world, but there are constant infringements of people's human rights taking place by governments across the globe.
The point that I am trying to get across is that the whole issue is far from straight forward. We cannot lose a sense of treating all people as humans. And bringing it back to the topic, instead of trying to make justifications for it, the starting point HAS to be that torture is morally wrong. However, there are occassions when governments justify that they needed to torture someone in order to secure vital, life-saving information. What they are doing is justifying a moral wrong, it does not suddenly convert it into a moral right!