Its not intuitive, its what the entities most responsible for gathering intelligence from captured enemies across much of the world have concluded based on experience (some parts of the US intelligence community, though not all, conveniently backed off that conclusion at about the same time that the previous administration began adopting "enhanced interrogation methods"), that torture is generally inferior to the best available alternatives for gathering actionable intelligence, though its a great way to get people to tell you want they want to hear.
If it does not work, why do we still do it?
I suspect that the main reasons are:
1) It fits the need to feel that something is being done to bad people that people in the position to inflict may feel, and as a short-term salve over feelings of impotence in the face of danger, and
2) Its very good for getting people to tell you what you want to hear, which, if you have superiors who want information to justify a preconceived course of action (or if you have a preconceived interpretation of events you want to sell to your superiors), is very useful.
Comments
Its not intuitive, its what the entities most responsible for gathering intelligence from captured enemies across much of the world have concluded based on experience (some parts of the US intelligence community, though not all, conveniently backed off that conclusion at about the same time that the previous administration began adopting "enhanced interrogation methods"), that torture is generally inferior to the best available alternatives for gathering actionable intelligence, though its a great way to get people to tell you want they want to hear.
I suspect that the main reasons are:
1) It fits the need to feel that something is being done to bad people that people in the position to inflict may feel, and as a short-term salve over feelings of impotence in the face of danger, and
2) Its very good for getting people to tell you what you want to hear, which, if you have superiors who want information to justify a preconceived course of action (or if you have a preconceived interpretation of events you want to sell to your superiors), is very useful.