| Galaki said: If waterboard isn't torture, what is? |
How about strapping someone to the ground over a freshly planted bamboo plant and letting it grow through their torso?
I like Dennis Miller's take on waterboarding honestly. He points out that waterboarding is a technique that without physically harming people, can take someone who is (ie still is) willing to die for their cause and gets them to give you every piece of information they have. And again, without bodily harm. That's not torture, it's a gift that we should be using to save lives. Miller went so far as to say a "gift from the almighty" or something similar, but being agnostic I don't go that far. I just see it as the right tool, for a distasteful (yet necessary) job, at the right time.
Of course others seem to have the priorities in the order of "We won't do something that would help save lives because it might emotionally harm a terrorist".
Call me crazy but I don't buy the argument of "We should show them that we are above that.". If anything, and at the risk of offending some, I would look down on any person who could actually put the life, much less the emotional state, of a terrorist before the lives of, what could potentially be, hundreds or/of thousands of innocent people. Honestly I think many folks who claim otherwise would actually go through with it if they were faced with the responsibility of making the choice.
In short, I say yes to waterboarding, and no to real torture...like growing a plant through someone's chest =P But, what I also say yes to is the idea that the person who gives the order should be accountable to get it right, both in making sure it's done properly and in selecting the subject. Agents who don't want to use the technique shouldn't be forced to, but to use the analogy, just because someone finds making sausage to be distasteful doesn't mean I can't have sausage.
PS - The bamboo thing is a real technique that has been used in the past.
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| To Each Man, Responsibility |
