Hearing the news coming out today about waterboarding has really gotten my skivvies in a bunch. Not just hearing that the procedure was used 186 times on one person, but the responses I've been hearing from some of the more conservative folks here in my neck of the woods. Here's a sample:
While waterboarding might be a terrible thing to do, it would seem to be rather minor in comparison to the attrocities committed by these terrorists. Given all the suicide bombings ordered by these thugs including the 9/11 hijackings, I have a hard time feeling sorry for them. How many beheadings did these people order? How many mutilations? Waterboarding is mental abuse. These two terrorists would have no problem mutilating their victims or ordering women to be stoned to death. These SOB's are very bad people, and if they happened to suffer a little discomfort, then tough luck. - Severus...
First of all, this "proceduere" was supposedly about gathering information, not punnishing the evildoers. One rule of thumb I've alwasy used is that if something doesn't work, you stop doing it after a couple of times. That waterboarding was used 186 times on ONE INDIVIDUAL leads me to believe that it stopped being for information at some point and became pure sadism.
Second of all, this is the United States of America. We DO NOT TORTURE...EVER! To do so goes against everything we have stood for for over 200 years. Why does it bother me so much? Why should I worry about a few terrorists who probably deserve this:
Because I am an American and a Veteran, that is why. I took an oath to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies both foreign and domestic..." Torture is something that our own laws forbid. It goes against everything that our veterans over the years have fought, died and/or been maimed for, and continue to do today. If we are a nation the believes in "Liberty and Justice for All..." we need to act like it. That means we DON'T TORTURE>>>>EVER!
The purpose of the attacks Mr. Severus mentioned was to destroy America. The best way to do that is to cause us to take away our own liberties to make us "like them". Torture was a big step in that direction. Combine this with the regulations of the Patriot Act, the domestic wiretapping scandal, and other atrocities committed in the past 8 years, and I would say we are losing the War on Terrorism. We are losing this war not because they are better armed, or able to sneak below our radar, but because they are allowing us to achieve their objectives for them.
5 comments:
Waterboarding?
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If the tables were turned, this 7th-century savage would have been chopping our heads off while making a video of it.
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Water boarding is not a near-drowning technique. The subject is never in danger of drowning. And water boarding is not torture... no physical harm to the subject.
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Kahlid Sheikh Mohammed is a bad guy, and US interrigators obtained valuable info from him using this technique- who cares how many times it took? It was up to him how long before he decided to cooperate, didn't have to be this way necessarily- apparently he clung stubbornly to a bad decision, sounds like something he'd do.
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http://reaganiterepublicanresistance.blogspot.com
My God! How can you justify this!? Torture, whether physical or psychological is still TORTURE!
1. What these people would or would not do to me has no bearing on the subject at hand. There are plenty of people who would do harm to us that are not Muslim. Does this mean we should go after them too?
2. Time and again it has been proven that torture is NOT RELIABLE. There is no way to confirm that the person isn't saying what you want to hear so they will stop.
3. Let me be clear. THE USA DOES NOT TORTURE! If it does, I say again, we have already lost and Al Quaida has won.
There is NEVER EVER EVER justification for torture of any kind. Period. America can not stand as a beacon for freedom if it does these things. It simply can not.
I'm with you AH.
I'm also a veteran. The nation I swore to protect does not torture. We are Americans; we are better than that. Period.
Well said, Lauralew!
Just because waterboarding might, in some warped sense, be "less wrong" than something someone else is doing, that's not a valid excuse for doing it. It is still wrong, and I want the USA doing what is right.
If we truly believe in the high ideals that the USA is supposed to stand for, we must set an example to the world by holding our government (and ourselves) to a higher and better standard. Torture is not part of that standard.
Apparenly, Reaganite Republican Resistance believes that if the torture don't leave the victim with discernable physical damage, then anything else goes. His is not a defensible position!
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