The Case of Torture: How the 'Ends' Fall Short of Justifying the 'Means'

            The U.S. has often been described as the "leader of the free world", "America the great" and a "beacon of democracy". America's conduct during the War on Terror, including its resort to torture, is serving to severely taint this image, undermine its foreign policy interests and sabotage the cause itself. The utilitarian premise of "ends justify the means" has never been acceptable in our legal forums and within the justice system, and it should thus not be extended to the sensitive context of torture.  To illustrate this point, the following analogy will suffice: when the means of obtaining evidence are deemed unconstitutional, such evidence may be excluded from a trial even if it results in a guilty person going free, perhaps even causing great harm. The "ends justify the means" rationale is, however, what underpins the actions of terrorists who are willing to harm the fundamentals of humanity in order to attain a political objective. Condemning terrorist behavior thus requires that the U.S. reject the aforementioned rationale in moral decision-making. Engaging in torture represents a victory for terrorism, as it has succeeded in causing the U.S. to stoop towards terrorist methods. Sullivan makes a compelling comparison when he states, "What our practical endorsement of torture has done is to remove that clear boundary between the Islamists and the West and make the two equivalent in the Muslim mind. Saddam Hussein used Abu Ghraib to torture innocents; so did the Americans. Yes, what Saddam did was exponentially worse. But, in doing what we did, we blurred the critical, bright line between the Arab past and what we are proposing as the Arab future. We gave Al Qaeda an enormous propaganda coup, as we have done with Guantánamo and Bagram, the "Salt Pit" torture chambers in Afghanistan, and the secret torture sites in Eastern Europe.." America's very conduct during war and the use of torture inarguably and perhaps inevitably strips it of its moral leadership and credibility and renders so-called "democratization and freedom missions" as pure hypocrisy, often isolating any potential and crucial allies. Torture is thus at odds with the fundamental values of our society, and the international community must convene to amend current laws in place and create a new framework within which the unconventional threat of terrorism can be properly addressed.