Ban Torture

Foreign Policy magazine and the Center for New American Security (CNAS) surveyed more than 3400 retired and active duty officers on the state of the U.S. military. Forty-four percent disagreed with the statement, “Torture is never acceptable.”

Lt. Col. John A. Nagl, who helped write the Army’s counterinsurgency field manual, remarked at the survey’s launch event on February 19, 2008:

I was both surprised and disturbed by the number of serving and retired military officers who thought that torture might be acceptable. Frankly, I joined the military to fight against people who torture. And the fact that 44% thought that it might acceptable… Some of that might be a reflection of the Jack Bauer effect, and the extraordinarily hypothetical one in a million million sort of cases. But we the American military have to be very careful, I think, to preserve our most treasured attribute, which is our reputation for being the good guys, and I was very disturbed by that.

Summary of the panel discussion from the Center for Defense Information

“The American public is far more open than opinion leaders to the use of torture against suspected terrorists in order to gain important information. Nearly half of the public (46%) says this can be either often (15%) or sometimes (31%) be justified. This is consistent with results of Pew surveys since July 2004.

By contrast, no more than one-in-four in any of the eight elite groups believes the torture of terrorist suspects can be sometimes or often justified. Strong opposition to torture is particularly pronounced among security experts, religious leaders and academics, majorities of whom say the use of torture to gain important information is never justified. Nearly half (48%) of scientists and engineers also take this position, as do military leaders (49%).”

The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, America’s Place in the World survey, November 17, 2005.