Does Torture Work?

Torture, or "enhanced interrogation" as described more "politely" by those that use it, is thought by many today to be effective.  This is the case with many boys and young men who currently enjoy the violence in playing video games and watching military movies.  Also, torture was believed to work by the former Bush Administration, Fox "News," and various others. They still believe it is effective in extracting important information when it is critical to do so.  


I watched an interview on Democracy Now by Amy Goodman with "Matthew Alexander, a former senior military interrogator who conducted or supervised over 1300 interrogations in Iraq, leading to the capture of numerous al-Qaeda leaders."  He thinks differently.  The following is a portion of his interview answer to what is the most effective way to get information from a prisoner.
"I don’t torture because it doesn’t work. I don’t torture, because it’s immoral, and it’s against the law, and it’s inconsistent with my oath of office, in which I swore to defend the Constitution of the United States. And it’s also inconsistent with American principles. So, my primary argument against torture is one of morality, not one of efficacy.

You know, if torture did work and we could say it worked 100 percent of the time, I still wouldn’t use it. The U.S. Army Infantry, when it goes out into battle and it faces resistance, it doesn’t come back and ask for the permission to use chemical weapons. I mean, chemical weapons are extremely effective—we could say almost 100 percent effective. And yet, we don’t use them. But we make this—carve out this special space for interrogators and say that, well, they’re different, so they can violate the laws of war if they face obstacles.

And that’s an insult to American interrogators, who are more than capable of defeating our enemies and al-Qaeda in the battle of wits in the interrogation room. And American interrogators have proven this time and time again, from World War II through Vietnam, through Panama, through the First Gulf War. And let’s go back to the successes of American interrogators. You know, American interrogators found Saddam Hussein without using torture. We found and killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda Iraq, which helped turn the Iraq war, without using torture. And numerous other leaders that we have found and captured—another guy named Zafar, that I describe in my book—all these successes have come without the use of torture."

The following is a link to the video and transcript for the whole interview.
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/5/4/former_military_interrogator_matthew_alexander_despite

I have never been in this type of situation.  However, when I think back to child rearing, building rapport with honesty and understanding worked better than violence (hitting, spanking). It sounds like interrogation may be the same.  Golden Rule.