Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Your Call 042909 Why does torture capture the public's imagination?

Why does torture capture the public's imagination in a way that death wrought by war does not? On the next Your Call we will discuss the disparity between our national conversation on torture and the relative quiet about the death and destruction in Iraq and Afghanistan. Is it easier to imagine ourselves as the tortured, or the torturer, than as a soldier in the field? Send us an email at feedback@yourcallradio.org or join us live at 11 a.m. Does the scale of war make it harder to fathom, while torture is intimate enough to come alive in the imagination? It's Your Call with Sandip Roy and you.

Guests:
Richard Falk in Santa Barbara
Professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University, writer (the author or co-author of 20 books), speaker, activist on world affairs, and an appointee to two United Nations positions on the Palestinian territories.

Scott Horton in New York
Professor at Columbia Law School where he teaches law of armed conflict. He is also a contributing editor to Harper's Magazine and writes the No Comment blog

Uwe Jacobs in San Francisco
Clinical director for Survivor's International

Click to Listen: Why does torture capture the public's imagination?