Dear Future President,

I understand taking the office is stressful enough as it is and there are many issues to be solved, but I would like to bring another to your attention: the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. The use of enhanced interrogation techniques on convicts, especially those who could possibly be innocent, is immoral and needs to come to an end.

I understand that torture does have its benefits. It can be a quick way to attain information, but only if there is knowledge of this intelligence before the interrogation begins. Though this can sometimes be effective, often the techniques used lead to false facts-- people will try to say anything to make the pain stop. Even if the information obtained is reliable, the methods used are both mentally and physically harmful to the prisoners.

Some people believe our cruelty is justified because it is not as bad as what our enemies are doing across the sea, but this is not true. We should strive to do better than those we fight and uphold our nation’s values. We cannot let fear change who we are as a country. Terrorism is a real issue, but we need to be better than them, meaning we should not torture our prisoners.The US needs to follow the values we hold and strive to be a “city on a hill” for the rest of the world. To achieve this, we need to end the enhanced interrogations at Guantanamo Bay.

Sincerely,

Emily W. Grade 10