The Secret Weapon In The War On Terror

The Secret Weapon in the War on Terror
The Geneva conventions are a set of rules that seek to protect those who are not taking part in hostilities, this includes prisoners of war. Prisoners of war often suffer from cruel punishment for information. Governments worldwide have went against the Geneva Conventions in order to torture suspected people of interest. The torturing of detainees continues to be a social issue in America because of the failure to define torture, the lack of information on torture reports, and the increasing number of terrorist attacks in modern society. Although there is not a known specific date as to when torture became an issue, the events that occurred on September 11, 2001 appears to have been the spark to this
“International agreements on the subject have used various definitions. The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment” ( Torture). However, army officials have discovered loopholes in the term in order to use torture as a strategy legally. Many officials have argued that the prohibition of cruel punishment does not apply to prisoners of war. President George W. Bush had an influence on that argument claiming that torture is a enhanced interrogation strategy used to obtain vital information. Many of American citizens accepted that term due to the emotional effect that the terrorist events on September 11,2001 had on the nation. After this misunderstanding on the issue the U.S government passed Article 17 of the Geneva Conventions establishing that no prisoner of war shall be subject to physical or mental torture. It also states that “persons taking no active part in the hostilities … shall in all circumstances be treated humanely” (Torture). A clear definition of torture is necessary to pass laws against
“An independent inquiry headed by former Defense Secretary James Schlesinger reported that the scale of abuses by soldiers and civilian contract interrogators at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison was much greater than previously admitted. Implicitly conceded: The whole story has not yet been told. The Schlesinger report dealt with Abu Ghraib but had little to say about what has gone on at Guantanamo and in Afghanistan.” (Pfaff). After the events at Guantanamo, the United States’ own army conducted an investigation many accounts of torture were revealed , some have been confirmed. Although some soldiers have been under interrogation for this abuse, very few have actually been sent to trial. This is a result of the “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” situation often used in the military. This policy has caused many soldiers to withhold information concerning the violation of the Geneva Conventions. Higher officials are rarely convicted of these violations, yet the lower ranked soldiers have. Most of convicted lower ranked soldiers have said that they have committed torture because they were just following orders . However, they did not report the incident even after realizing what the policy on torture was. Failing to report torture has caused this issue to further spread without any consequences to those who inflict cruel punishment on to