When talking about critical thinking, it is sometimes easy to forget that we do not live in an intellectual vacuum, but, instead, we have to live our lives as part of a social community. One of the most politically charged issues where we have to address the boundaries of the individual and the political community is in the use of torture, especially as it is connected to what politicians have termed the war on terror. The two articles we ask you to consider this week address that very delicate conjunction of ethics and politics: Michael Yoo's "The Torture Memo" and Barrack Obama's "Remarks by the President on National Security,.

Directions

In this week's assignment, you need to choose one of these two articles and identify what you feel is the main conclusion of their argument. Then, demonstrate your own critical thinking skills as we have worked on them in this course by answering the following problem: Do you agree with their perspective? Why or why not? Make sure to support your answer with specific references both to the class materials as well as to the article, using appropriate APA citation.

Criteria for Success

These assignments are designed to give you an opportunity to practice as well as demonstrate the fundamental skills a critical thinker needs. It is not enough to simply meet the minimum word requirement. In order to excel in this assignment, you should

1, Knowledgeably employ the terms and ideas in the class materials and apply them to your given topic.
2. Skillfully and specifically analyze your given object of investigation.
3. Connect to your own experience and the world around you

Assignment Expectations

For this assignment, you should not need to consult or utilize any outside sources. If you feel compelled to make reference to outside sources or other people's words or ideas, you need to cite them using APA citation, or you may be committing plagiarism. (Please see APA information provided by your library, or contact either me or the librarian if you need clarification on APA citation).

Your assignment should be a minimum of 500 words (not including headers, references or other items not part of the main assignment text) and should be formatted according to APA specifications.