My Issues With Torture

I recently got into a heated argument with a close relative of mine regarding the Bush administration's authorization and utilization of torture on suspected combatants. I use the term "utilization" loosely, because I believe that torture does not produce accurate or valuable information. I can only imagine that I, myself, would start telling people anything they wanted to hear if they were torturing me.

My conversation went (as I recall) somewhat like this:

"...the authorization of the use of torture."
"Oh really?"
"Yes, really. It's disgusting and doesn't do anything"
"Oh it does plenty. It says 'don't fuck with me' ".

Of course, my jaw dropped from having heard my relative just exclaim that. Also, this is a person who has never had anything but unwavering support for the conservative movement and the Bush administration.

This is all merely leading me to my position on torture: it's an absolute sign of how disgusting human beings can be. I understand that there are people who are probably deserving of torture or even immediate death, given certain atrocities that they committed. But we have to look at it from a different angle.

First of all, who has the 'right' to torture anyone? Secondly, who can bring themselves to inflict horrible pain and trauma on another human being? I think people fail to realize that these are still, despite what they may or may not have done, human beings. At the same time, our government [was] saying it was wrong and illegal to harm Americans, and yet, our government [was] committing atrocities of equal proportion.