Torture is necessary for gaining valuable information to keep america Research Paper

Torture is necessary for gaining valuable information to keep america and its allies safe in the war on terrorism - Research Paper Example In the recent geo-political context, the fight against terrorism has reopened this debate. The United States’ military personnel, with permission/instructions from higher authorities (going as high up as Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld), have tortured suspected terrorists since the beginning of its War on Terror operations. While some of the methods employed in eliciting important information from suspects is degrading and inhuman, one has to understand prevailing political contexts in which such actions become inevitable. For example, â€Å"to counter an enemy who relies on stealth and surprise, the most valuable tool is information, and often the only source of that information is the enemy himself. Men like Sheikh Mohammed who have been taken alive in this war are classic candidates for the most cunning practices of this dark art. Intellectual, sophisticated, deeply religious, and well trained, they present a perfect challenge for the interrogator. Getting at the info rmation they possess could allow us to thwart major attacks, unravel their organization, and save thousands of lives. They and their situation pose one of the strongest arguments in modern times for the use of  torture.† (Bowden, 2003, p.52) The rest of this essay will try and present more points in support of torture as a key interrogative tool, and show why its continued employment will save thousands of innocent lives in the future. Foremost among the rationales for usage of torture techniques is the current era of warfare we are living through. The September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, Pentagon and other targets within the United States had illustrated clearly the scope and magnitude of jihadist terrorism. (Bowden, 2003, p.52) This event showed to leaders of democratic nations that terrorism has indeed come of age. In this new era of warfare, battles are no longer waged between symmetrical power entities – one state upon another. Rather, in the asy mmetrical military engagements of today, conventional states confront non-state enemies â€Å"who are palpably post-modern: trans-national, decentralized, more closely resembling a fog or that mythic beast with multiple and multiplying heads, the hydra, than the traditional more or less well-defined and (at least potentially) containable national enemy. Moreover, this hydra is one given particularly to living amongst and preying upon civilians. In other words, as the smoldering ruins of Ground Zero reminded us, this is an enemy who does not respect the traditional moral parameters of warfare. Accompanying this recognition is the suspicion that these developments have finally rendered the just war tradition obsolete, irrelevant, impossible.† (Bell, 2006, p.34) Hence, in these uncertain and insecure times, traditional criteria of measuring fairness and justice no longer apply. Waging the War on Terror successfully requires rejection of antiquarian views of â€Å"legitimate aut hority, last resort, and the possibility of distinguishing between combatant and non-combatant.† (Bell, 2006, p.34) Our leaders no longer have the luxury of â€Å"moral purity or clean hands† that the just war tradition requires. Moreover, one has to make a distinction between acting morally and acting foolishly. It would amount to acting foolishly if key protections of the Bill of Rights are extended to ruthless enemies who do not share America’s vision of war, justice and morality. The key question to ask is whether the imperative to destroy the

Human Factors Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Human Factors - Essay Example External environment plays a very significant role in the success of the business. The analysis method that will be most appropriate in evaluating the operations of the external environment is the Porter’s Five Force Model, while the PEST analysis would be used in investigating and evaluating the macro environment. Porter’s Five Force Model examines very sensitive and significant areas of the business organization (Porter, 2004). The next aspect of consideration is the internal analysis of the business in distributing the target tape to hospitals that would be very important in understanding and evaluating the operations of the business. This kind of analysis will be very important in determining whether the company will be successful or will collapse along the way. The internal analysis under consideration would include the primary activities like human resource management, finance, customer service, and marketing (Chaffey, 2009). It is however, of great importance for the business to possess unique capabilities and characteristics in order to enable the management develop a strategy that would assist in distributing quality target tapes to hospitals and health care institutions. Another important aspect to note in the implementation is the generic competitive strategies that would enable the firm fit in the competitive nature of the market. Some of the challenges experienced in a competitive environment ar e the increased demand for high quality target tapes and the growing need to adopt new technology in order to serve the diverse needs of the patients. These are the business organizations that would have the ability and the will to join the existing business environment and hence make the competition be tenser. The planners need to understand that profit levels of the business will tend to depreciate because as other organizations strive to join the product market, there will be increased rivalry (Porter, 2004). Therefore, it is