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Torture And National Security In Essay

Sung accomplishes the refutation by the simple means of refusing to allow Dershowitz to stand on his assumptions of what permits so radical a circumstance. For example, Sung directly addresses Dershowitz's claim that terrorists are not implicitly owed protection of human dignity rights by virtue of their activities. Dershowitz does make a compelling argument for this but, as Sung points out, he is not actually enabled to take such a position because the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments have already made that decision (Sung 202). Due process is built into the law to protect all, and deliberately so; Sung implies, in fact, that the protections are likely in place to avert just such extreme eventualities. Then, Sung challenges the use of judicial warrants as an inherently contrary action, aside from the fundamental illegality. To legally warrant torture is, in Sung's view, to "legitimize" the practice, and this is clearly a catastrophic course for a nation founded on principles of personal liberty and human rights. As Sung avers, any sanctioned use of torture by the United States must effectively eviscerate the nation's global standing.

Plainly, threats to national security present extraordinary circumstances which must be addressed by extraordinary procedures. There is, as noted, an attractive pragmatism to this approach. Nonetheless, Sung serves as a necessary reminder of an essential reality. Any nation may only assert its principles based upon its most vulnerable or questionable policies, if it seeks to maintain a presence as a champion of human rights at all. To sanction torture, even when the safety of the state is threatened, is to erode, if not destroy, the essence of the nation so desperate to preserve itself.
Works Cited

Sung, C. "Torturing the Ticking Bomb Terrorist: An Analysis of Judicially Sanctioned Torture in the Context of Terrorism." Boston College Third World law Journal 23:1 (2003): 193-212.

Print.

Dershowitz, A. "The Torture Warrant: A Response to Professor Strauss." New York Law School

Review 48 (2003): 275-294. Print.

Sources used in this document:
Works Cited

Sung, C. "Torturing the Ticking Bomb Terrorist: An Analysis of Judicially Sanctioned Torture in the Context of Terrorism." Boston College Third World law Journal 23:1 (2003): 193-212.

Print.

Dershowitz, A. "The Torture Warrant: A Response to Professor Strauss." New York Law School

Review 48 (2003): 275-294. Print.
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