Torturing Us With Political Torture
First, does waterboarding work in getting terrorists to divulge critical information to foil terrorism? I really want to know if waterboarding saved American lives. I hear conflicting information on this, and nobody really wants to tell us what, if anything, waterboarding accomplished. For example, I hear that waterboarding averted a terrorist attack on the Library Tower in Los Angeles (a building, incidentally, which I raced up last year). If true, this fact would be a super-strong argument to keep waterboarding in place. On the other hand, is it true? Nobody tells us, and certainly Nancy Pelosi hasn’t or is willfully blind to that fact if it is true.
This issue ties in to the second question below. For if waterboarding does not work, or is ineffective, then it is quite obviously torture. Why? Because it does nothing but inflict pain and suffering on its victims.
So then, is waterboarding torture, or more precisely a form of torture that is beneath the dignity of a civilized country like the U.S.? (here, I am assuming that waterboarding is the method employed by the CIA with all the safeguards and procedures that were supposedly used). I really don’t know either. Obviously, it’s exceedingly unpleasant, uncomfortable, and scary to be waterboarded. However, lately it seems that those who believe that waterboarding is unacceptable torture just make the assumption that it is, as though saying this enough times makes that an “obvious” fact. What is definitive in my view is that the debate on this issue has been marred by politicians using the issue as a weapon against their opponents and rivals, versus striving for the truth.
So my real conclusion is merely this: our politicians are just torturing us with the torture debate. And by doing so, they are potentially risking the lives of countless Americans, you and I included, in the process.
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May 19th, 2009 at 9:10 am
We are not a civilized country, we do what is needed to defend ourselves. This includes our WWII intensive interrogation operation MIS-Y. This operation is basically the same we had at Guantánamo Bay, except they were really Prisons of War, but denied that status by a Democratic Administration. Since the Educational-industrial Complex no longer teaches history, nor political scince, and that it was a Democratic Administration, this operation gets a pass.
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MJK
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May 19th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
Brian I agree. Could you tell use more about the MIS-Y program? I am just really ticked off that these politicians are playing political games with our lives, and are trying to destroy the CIA in the process. If Pelosi sinks, that may hopefully reinvigorate the CIA.
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May 19th, 2009 at 9:12 am
Pelosi will get a pass and keep her position as Speaker. Also, I am positive her district will re-elect her next year.
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October 15th, 2009 at 8:02 pm
Lefties banned torture even in Israel. I remember when top Shabak investigator was fired for torturing the kidnapper of Ron Arad whom we, in turn, kidnapped in Lebanon
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