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Torture...at times?

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In only specific instances...but how can we absolutely say no?
Chloe

6 responses // Torture...at times?

  • tickle torture anyone???
    smorrisey
  • It is a well-established fact that torture doesn't work, and in the classical example you give, it wouldn't work either. The people who are tortured systematically say what they think their torturers want to hear. Your attitude is not only idiotic, it is totally wrong and unworthy of a human being.
    Vierotchka
  • smorrisey - what about those people who are not ticklish, or those, like me, who can switch their ticklishness off and on at will? :)

    Chloe - yours is a classical false argument - anyone who is a terrorist has trained to resist torture. It would take days, weeks, even months of torture to get anything out of them, and what one could get out of them is most likely false information or what the tortured person thinks is what the torturer wants to hear. Therefore, that argument is prima facie totally false.
    Vierotchka
  • The problem with this theory is that it produces unreliable information. The goal of a tortured person is stopping the torture. Generally, they do this by blathering whatever they think the interrogator wants to hear.

    A dedicated, hard-core terrorist would send his interrogators on the most wild goose chases imaginable in order to waste their time and resources, diverting them away from real threats. Indeed, we have seen this happen several times from Gitmo interrogations (remember the false New York Tunnel threats?)

    I recently read an article from a WWII vet who was in charge of several high-profile Nazi prisoners. He was asked about how the Allies would interrogate their prisoners. He replied that they didn't interrogate them outright, but earned their trust. To paraphrase: "The best information I ever got was during a game of ping-pong."

    We do not serve the cause of Freedom nor the American Way with torture, coercion, water-boarding, sleep deprivation, etc. In the eyes of the enemy, we have simply played into his generalization that we are inhuman, "The Great Satan".

    The point of terrorism is terror. If we do not let fear blind us to what is right and true, then terrorism will never defeat us.
    RoboNerd
  • No way, I totally disagree. You have to think about it from both perspective's and from outside of the box. Let's say a country has reason to believe the U.S. is going to attack their country, therefore they kidnap American's who they believe have good information and torture them, how would you feel, and other than you, how would most of the United States feel? Torture is not a valid option in any case to get information. Furthermore, it totally disregards our countries morals of respecting human rights.
    eddieamador
  • The IDIOTS in the Bush administration aren't smart enough to develop a good network of counter-intelligence in the Middle East. They think intercepting "chatter" is the way to discover new plans. It is also a way for our enemies to send those same morons on "wild goose chases". Chloe, even getting to the point of verifying that a plot exists is something that would have to be done before YOUR scenario could ever even be tried and then most experts agree that the information is not reliable. The lazy dogs that think they can win a war with 'smart bombs' and conquer a country with few casualties are the SAME DULLARDS that are okaying waterboarding . The only thing they are really good at is deceiving the American people and then squealing "executive privilege" or "national security" so they won't have turn over incriminating evidence. That is the ONLY thing they learned from Nixon -- Never turn over anything and never answer questions under oath.......................................................................... wonder if anyone has ever waterboarded Cheney or Bush? Now there are two people who should volunteer to be waterboarded to prove it's not that bad.
    Inofuilwell

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