When I first heard about the “torture debate” in the United States, I could hardly believe it was happening. Why did we need to discuss something that was at once immoral and ineffective?

But when the Abu Ghraib photos surfaced, it became clear that not only was torture an issue, our government seemed determined to be on the wrong side of it. They twisted the Constitution to get legal justification, and took their case to the American people claiming it was a necessary evil, that there was no other way to obtain information from terrorists, information that could save hundreds or thousands or even millions of lives.

This despite the fact that every competent, unbiased study of the subject reveals that torture is at best ineffective and often counterproductive. King’s College, the World Health Organization, Fairleigh Dickinson University, and the CIA-all agree on torture’s ineffectiveness. Subjects simply tell interrogators either what they want to hear or carefully rehearsed lies.

Then what possible motive could we have for torture? For the Bush administration, it helped maintain the climate of fear so useful in the war on terror and perpetuated the the idea that we had to bend the rules to win.

Obama was swept into office on the promise of change including guarantees to eliminate the use of torture. Now he appears to be hedging, showing reluctance to examine methods used in prisoner interrogations and neglecting to ban rendition. We must continue to pressure him until we see decisive action.

Unfortunately, most of the United States agrees that there are circumstances where torture is justified; the “ticking time bomb” scenario is often cited by torture proponents as a situation where it could be rationalized despite all scientific evidence to the contrary.

No sane person will assert that torture is moral; instead, it is presented as the lesser of two evils, the only effective means to obtain vital information. For it to stop, the public must be educated on the inefficacy of torture, made aware of the unanimous expert’s opinion that it does not work. Only then can this insane, pointless cruelty be stopped.