I’d like to think that our nation obeys every rule that they enforce, especially when it comes down to how we treat prisoners of war. I’m sure the information I’ve researched is pretty limited due to the fact that the Geneva Doctrine specifically states that any form of torture for interrogation practices are prohibited.

Rumors of illegal torture practices have been filtering through the media since World War II and since then the Geneva Doctrine was created in order to prevent this from happening.

While the Geneva Doctrine intends to protect those accused of acts of terror, although with incidents like 9/11, it’s hard to abide by the Doctrine entirely.

Methods such as water boarding, putting prisoners in awkward positions for hours, and ice baths have been used for decades as extreme forms of interrogation practices.

Water boarding is an extreme interrogation practice that is employed by strapping a person face down to a wooden board and “dry drowning” them with ice cold buckets of water that are poured mostly on the head.

These practices may not be as torturous as those used in ancient China, the Salem Witch Trials, and the Middle Ages, and the Civil War era.

Chinese bamboo torture has been deemed as the most painful form of torture because of how slow and grueling the process is. Bamboo sticks are sharpened to a point and placed vertically into the ground while the victim lies horizontally on top of them, the victim is skewered slowly through his/her abdomen.

Back in those days though, victims committed acts of adultery, blasphemy, and robbery, whereas now victims are tortured due to conspiracy theories.

This is the United States though; we don’t commit acts like that on people accused of homosexuality or robbery. We go through a court system and figure these issues out properly and believe that any person is innocent until proven guilty.

Or do we cover up our faults with just phrases to make the U.S. look fair and like we’ve got it all together?

I don’t think anyone can honestly answer that question, but how far will we go as a nation to uncover the truth?

Let’s imagine that a little birdie hinted that there is a bomb hidden inside one of the many bathrooms inside the Pentagon. The CIA has justifiable reasons to call out a few suspects, but what if they refuse to cooperate?

Does the Geneva Doctrine still come into play when our nation is in a timely crisis?

I’d say no; if we need an answer then we should do whatever it takes to get it. Although, I would not go as far as threatening the use of the electric chair, but some form of soft torture like water boarding.

I realize that as a nation, we don’t want to stoop down to our enemies’ level and use barbaric methods to get the information we need, but in extreme cases, torture should be enforced.

With the presidential election in full swing, the issue of whether foreign terrorist suspects should be given the same rights as U.S. Citizens is just as vital as the war in Afghanistan.

Both presidential candidates agree that terrorist suspects should not be given any rights, but Romney feels that drastic measure should be taken in an interrogation practice if information is vital to the country, as reported by ISideWith.com.

Obama notes that suspected terrorists should not be subjected to any form of torture and given a military tribunal trial stated ISideWith.com.

In 2002, the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba Naval Base was built to detain all alleged insurgents involved in the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Guantanamo Bay is best known for its detention camp practices, including abrasive interrogation practices.

During the Bush Administration, the U.S. Department of Justice came to the conclusion that Guantanamo was out of legal limits of the U.S.

Rumors arose in 2009 that detainees were being subjected to water boarding in both CIA prisons and in Guantanamo Bay, but the issue of torture has been put on the back burner several instances in the court room.

In an editorial published by the New York Times on September 5, 2012 stated, “A suspected militant named Gul Rahman, died in 2002 after being shackled to a concrete wall in near-freezing temperatures in a secret C.I.A. prison in Afghanistan.”

“The other, Manadel al-Jamadi, died in C.I.A. custody in 2003 at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, where his corpse was photographed wrapped in plastic.” reported the New York Times.

I believe in a fair trial, that there is a just process and solution to every problem that arises, but torturing an individual is not the proper way to get what you want.

Although physical and mental torture are two different ball games in my book, physically harming an alleged terrorist will only add fuel to their fire, but mental torture may as well annoy them enough to a point that they comply with authorities just to feel sane again.

“Physical torture was on a par with psychological torture in terms of impact on fear, feelings of helplessness, loss of control and anxiety,” reported Kings College Researchers.

Torture of any sort is barbaric by all means, but in the most extreme cases it can and should be used to guard the sanctity of this country.