Government 2301.

101 February 15, 2009 Proposal Paper From the Webster dictionary Torture: Etymology: middle French, from Old French, from Latin tortura, from Latin tortus, past principle of torquere to twist, probably akin to Old High German drahsil turner, Greek atraktos spin Date: 1540 1a: anguish of body or mind: agony b: something that causes agony and pain 2: the infliction of intense pain (as from burning, crushing, or wounding) to punish, coerce, or afford sadistic pleasure 3: distortion or over refinement of a meaning or argument: straining Torture, a frightening word; a word no one likes to hear. The meaning makes you want to shut your eyes or turn your head. However, there are many meanings to the word torture. Depending on how you look at the word and meaning. The word has been a part of history for so long. In movies now days, this is just about all you see is someone getting tortured. Rather it be, by cutting someones fingers off one at a time or making someone plummet to their death into a billion needles infested with all kinds of disease. That is the kind of torture we are

familiar with. But what about the torture that took place many years ago, the kind of torture you have to read about or get told about. Like me, I had no idea what took place centuries ago. Another way we are introduced to the word is by what is going on overseas. Since the beginning of the war in Iraq we are becoming more familiar with the word torture because, of what we see on the news. Torture does not only mean to hurt someone, to make some suffer by committing some kind of harm to them physically. Another way is by verbal usage. Yelling at someone telling them something you know they are not going to like to hear, something thats going to trigger that person. Police officers are said to do this to get the criminal to come out and say what they are holding back. But is this torture? Some may think so, others may think otherwise. We as citizens dont think of the word torture as being a problem in our society unless we see it in the news. Its not the type of thing we talk about, hence the reason we are not too familiar with the word. I think everyone should take a closer look at the subject at hand. Understand the meaning and realize someone may be getting tortured now. It may be someone you know, or someone you dont. However, the word exists, and if no one does something about it, it will be here to stay for many years to come. Or is this the solution to some of our problems we as a country are facing as well as other countries.

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Bibliography Torture: does it make us safer? is it ever ok? : a humans rights perspective Roth, Kenneth The torture papers: the road to Abu Ghvaib Greenburg, Karen J. Torture and truth: America, Abu Ghraib and the war on Terror Danner, Mark Voices from S-21: terror and history in Pol Pots secret prison Chandler, David P. The torture debate in America Greenburg Karen J.