Is it impossible to torture someone for information?

[originalpckelly]

1. I have a detainee. I want to know where terrorist x is located. I have just waterboarded the detainee.
2. The man, err detainee, says terrorist x is in Afghanistan, in a cave at blah blah coord.
3. How do I know the detainee told me the truth, without first sending someone to check to see if the information is accurate?
4. If the detainee lied to me, do I torture him again? I suppose I must. I waterboard him again.
5. Yet again he tells me a bullshit answer that fails to check out.
6. Does he know something and is lying to me, or does he simply not know the information I seek and is he making up bullshit to save himself the pain of torture?

I demand you prove to me how you know. How do we ever know what's in someone's head with so little doubt we can feel comfortable torturing them?

Why do we really torture people if we're not capable of really finding out information accurately, at least from some subjects?

Isn't it really a form of cruel and unusual punishment?

[Uncle Joe]

1. I believe, when governments commit torture, dispensing pain more often than not is a means of

alleviating their own fear by creating fear in someone under their control.

Some people simply can't feel good about them selves, unless they're putting down others. I believe the same dynamic lies behind the compulsion to torture only instead of self-esteem or the lack thereof being the motivator, the motivation is uncontrollable fear by those in power.

"Why do we really torture people if we're not capable of really finding out information accurately, at least from some subjects?"

[Lerkfish]

2. anyone who tortures another human being begins to become unhuman

eventually, as we have seen in other regimes, the torture is perpetuated out of a sick need to torture, completely independent of any other need: information, compliance or even punishment.
Once you accept torture, you never use it LESS or STOP using it, unless caused to do so from an outside force.