A CNN poll this week has just revealed that 69% of Americans think that waterboarding is torture and 58% say the US shouldn’t use it. But a huge 40% of Americans said that the US government should be allowed to use the procedure to get information from terrorist suspects. In theory that’s 120 million people, give or take !
So let us understand this. 120 million Americans, good, God-fearing Christian folk* think it’s quite all right to use a technique discredited by the Spanish Inquisition and by Cambodia’s Kmer Rouge murderers. They are quite happy to have their representatives jig round the world preaching a holier-than-thou message about freedom, democracy and human rights, but when it comes down to it they are as pathetic, frightened and cruel as anyone else in the world, and are content to support a truly un-American practice that shows the whole game up for the charade it really is. The crust of Christianity is thin indeed.
Decent Epicureans abhor torture! Period! We have the moral high ground. Let us keep it.
* I am being ironic in a post-ironic age. I am also using assumptions based upon the fact that over 90% of Americans believe in God and a huge majority of the population believe in Jesus and go to church regularly. Some non-believers, agnostics and religious pseuds will also believe in torture. So much the worse for them
War is a part of life, and most unpleasant.
Torture is part of war, it accompanys it, it is used in every conflict, by every side. The better side is the one that uses it less, that puts restictions on its use, that regulates it.
To outlaw it is stupid and foolish. It is to tell a soldier to shoot, while putting a blinfold on him. The American people are neither of those things, and they can tell, also, which side is better than the other.
Which side is better than the other? Excuse me, who invaded whom? How many innocent Iraqis have been killed, on top of those killed by Saddam?
Do you really think “democracy” can be imposed at the end of a gun? How can you justify Abu Graib? I challenge you to try, here, on this blog!
Can democracy be imposed at the end of a gun? No, the gun is to get rid of the communists, stalinists, emperor worshipers, etc. You have confused the tool with the aim. Ha! Get it? AIM?? Haha!
War is a tool. Used in a good way, it shows a country, and a people, that they made an error of some sort. Being ruled by a dictator, for instance, is an error of society. When such societys come into conflict with free ones, there will be conflict. Engaging in a conflict with a free society is very, very, dangerous, since it is waged by public opinion. Public opinion can be very overeactive. Free societys tend to anihhilate their enemys, I hear.
In any event, the post is about torture. Abu Graib? No serious person would question a prison camp in a time of war. So, you objection is the “torture”? I think having your head sawed off, now thats torture. Having to jump from a skyscraper, torture too. Having to watch your father, sister, mother, jump from a skyscraper…torture. I find your priorities misplaced.
Can democracy be imposed at the end of a gun? No, the gun is to get rid of the communists, stalinists, emperor worshipers, etc. You have confused the tool with the aim. Ha! Get it? AIM?? Haha!
Oh, why did you stop? Surely, it’s o.k to get rid of anyone you disapprove of. What about abortionists, homosexuals, nazis, drug addicts, gun peddlers, thieves, people who offer and accept bribes and others who swindle old ladies out of their savings? Wow! I could go on!
War is a tool. Used in a good way, it shows a country, and a people, that they made an error of some sort. Being ruled by a dictator, for instance, is an error of society.
No, dictatorship is the norm and has been the norm for 10,000 years
When such societys come into conflict with free ones, there will be conflict. Engaging in a conflict with a free society is very, very, dangerous, since it is waged by public opinion. Public opinion can be very overeactive. Free societys tend to anihhilate their enemys, I hear.
Not necessarily. It is just that we happen to live at a time when the West has been in the ascendant. regrettably, the West is in relative decline, however you might want to beat your chest and tell us how wonderful it all is. Wait till the Chinese get going! Incidentally, do you really think the effete modern draft-dodgers that make up most Western countries could beat the massive Chinese military forces? Dream on!
In any event, the post is about torture. Abu Graib? No serious person would question a prison camp in a time of war. So, you objection is the “torture”? I think having your head sawed off, now thats torture. Having to jump from a skyscraper, torture too. Having to watch your father, sister, mother, jump from a skyscraper…torture. I find your priorities misplaced.
That’s interesting! Have you experienced the delights of water-boarding yourself, when you are submitted to something you believe is drowning and you would say anything to get them to stop it? I think you’ve been listening to too much Rush Limbaugh.