Bush Era Torture Memos Released

[Rath]

Rpruett said:

Rath said:

The argument but they killed innocents, so therefore we should use torture on people who might be innocent completely ignores the fact that the USA is meant to be a civilised society with laws and rights while 'they' are terrorists. Sinking to their level is a very bad idea because you'll be sinking for quite a long time.

People who are not citizens of this country and have no desire to be a working part of this country other than it's downfall don't deserve the same rights and liberties fought for by many others.   If you need to get information, this is the single handed most effective technique.

So its rights for Americans and not for non-Americans? I thought America had signed up to the idea that human rights are universal with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Bill of Human Rights?

In any case torture is generally not thought to be the most effective technique as prisoners will generally say lies to try and get it to stop. Any evidence obtained by torture is highly unreliable, hence why its not allowed in court.

 

Also stop playing it off like America is a big daddy protector to Europe, America always looks after America. It showed this in WWI and WWII where it didn't enter until it was, or its citizens were, attacked.

 

America and a few other countries provide protection to just about all the others.   Sure America looks after America.  That doesn't mean that European countries aren't protected. If Iran wanted to come up and romp all over Belgium or Portugal or whomever else.  Why wouldn't they?    The collective, protective shield of the big guys in Europe / America.

Europe yes, America not so much. In the case of any invasion in Europe the first countries to respond would be members of the European Union. Also the reason why Iran wouldn't romp all over Belgium or Portugal is geography, have you seen how far apart those countries are?

Note that these members of the EU are not (to the best of our knowledge) engaging in torture, hence your argument doesn't mean anything.

Again,  America is in a far different position than New Zealand or Belgium or Portugal.  The responsibility is much greater. The ability to maintain security and safety of the country is far more difficult.  It's really easy to take pot shots at the USA when you live in a country roughly equal to the size and population of 'one' of our states.

Actually its really easy to take pot-shots at the USA when they claim to be a beacon of freedom and democracy and then engage in some highly questionable practices. I find it much harder to take pot shots at the other large Western countries such as Germany, United Kingdom and France because they all have better records on human rights in modern times.