Why Corporal Punishment is Wrong1

Can someone cogently explain the argument against corporal punishment?
This argument has to be juxtaposed against a society that is far from pacifist in nature. Were we to be a society that was vehemently opposed to violence in any form then I could begin to understand the argument, understand, but not agree!
A boy or girl who is caned suffers a transitory degree of pain, that’s it ! We however possess weapons of mass destruction that we are as a society are presumably prepared to use. We deploy our armies, navies, and air force abroad to bring death and destruction to those who oppose us. These are not forces that we are using in defense of the realm we are using them in other people’s countries for an assortment of reasons.