Perhaps one of the most profound ethical dilemmas that has gained prominence in contemporary American political discourse is torture. Brought to us by the War on Terror, this issue has been contentious for years, but it recently resurfaced with the decision of the Obama administration to release previously classified memos regarding the controversial “enhanced interrogation techniques” of the Bush administration. These techniques include water boarding, stress positions, sleep deprivation and interrogations lasting up to 20 hours, among other methods.

Many people consider these techniques employed by Mr. Bush’s administration to be torture, and almost all of them were banned in 2005 and 2006 when this story was the most prominent in the media and around the world. But the debate over what classifies as torture is not the only controversy of the issue. There has also been intense discussion over whether it was appropriate for the Obama administration to release the memos in the first place, perhaps causing national security risks by doing so.

Really, I do not believe there is any debate to be had over this issue. The methods that were revealed to not only have been used, but abused severely in some cases, definitely constitute torture. Besides for other international standards, the United States is a signatory of the Geneva Conventions, which explicitly outlaw water boarding and other methods used by the Bush administration. Torture not work, it does not protect us, it destroys our moral standing in the world, and it is a gross violation of the human rights of the victim, even if that victim is a terrorist or criminal.

Some may argue that during a time of war torture is necessary to save the lives of innocent people. I have yet to have seen or heard of a scenario outside of fictional TV shows like 24 where a situation like this one has actually occurred. In real life, our ethics as a nation should never be set aside out of fear. There are many other effective ways of protecting our country that do not compromise our value system, as has been evidenced by the capture of the recent underwear bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who is currently in the United States’ government’s custody. We gained far more valuable information from treating him ethically, than from torturing many prisoners in the past.

Finally, some might be asking, why does this debate matter now? President Obama staunchly supports the decision to outlaw the torture methods of the Bush administration, so maybe his decision to release this material is superfluous, or at worst a political ploy to focus public attention on the unpopular decisions of the past. I do not agree with this position because transparency in regards to an issue this important is paramount. If the legal basis by which these methods are outlawed is not airtight, it risks being altered in the future during other times of conflict. So in order to determine that basis, exactly what happened needs to be made public, and the Obama administration has performed admirably in it’s decision to release the memos.