Slavery and torture, expanded: Andrew has been at the head of the pack on the evils of legitimating torture, and today links to this excellent post on how torture is a form of slavery.
In Roman times, torturing slaves was used to obtain information. Tacitus refers vaguely to 'torments' used on slaves to get information for trials. The idea that slaves had personal agency, or that torture could yield inaccurate information, was not a great concern. The pre-Christian thinking is fairly clear to discern: the threat of torture would compel slaves to tell the truth, and this was no concern, as slaves were not considered to be 'people' in the legal sense.
Now we are faced with the harsh reality that the American government tortures prisoners. The goal is to gain information, and we are presented fantastic scenarios of terrorists who have vital intelligence on terror cells and plots.
Like the slaves of the classical (and, sadly, early modern) period, the captured persons are not 'people' in the legal sense of the United States government. They exist solely for our usage: the less important ones to test the techniques which we employ on the more important ones.
The executive claims for itself the authority to define who is an "enemy combatant" and, as such, determine who will be our slaves to use as we seek.
How has it come to this? How have we again come to the idea that the freedom and safety of the majority can only be maintained by the slavery of a minority?
Reagan famously said "A government big enough to give you what you want is big enough to take it away." It seems our government is big enough.