>>"I don't think there is general agreement that an argument in favor of torture is impossible."
I admit that bothers me, however, I speak only for myself. In a nutshell my reasoning is that torture is a sin against your own soul and so it is not an option.
>>>Most people I know, regardless of political belief, would choose to apply torture to save the life of a family member. While these personal situations don't arise in the lives of most people, at the time when waterboarding was carried out it WAS effectively a "ticking time bomb" situation.
This is the crux of my problem with this convoluted discussion. It doesn't arise in a personal situation because you treat the perp as a violent enemy, you beat them or kill them to retrieve your loved one. There are no perfect solutions but torture doesn't always provide results, sometimes the tortured person actually doesn't have the information you are looking for. Where does that leave the torturer? The most famous radicals have been subject to torture prior to being radicalized and most people consider that a major factor in turning them into who they are.
It should be the same in a war situation. A person holding the secret to a ticking time bomb is not a prisoner. In my war book prisoners are people who've surrendered and no longer pose any kind of threat. Everyone else is dead or still in the heat of battle. The person holding this type of secret is still in the heat of conflict. You can't stop every bomb from exploding but you can stop every bomber and you would have far fewer situations with a surrender or die policy.
Imagine how soon we would end current conflicts if we had that policy. Imagine if Obama made an announcement to ISIS like, "starting today the USA will use the full force of our military, land, sea, and air to kill every one of you to the last man unless or until you have surrendered." Even with their current expanded capacity we could complete that mission within two weeks, even if we had to kill everyone of them and without deploying a big force in Iraq/Siria." Do I think that is more honorable than torturing a few of them... absolutely!
Currently ISIS copy cats are springing up everywhere. We still have a little time to turn that around ... but it aint happening. Anything less than the full commitment I am calling for is a joke, a waste of time, and counter productive; which is why I haven't wasted much time in these discussions lately. |
