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Originally Posted by Uncle Russ
Gentlemen:
But, without regard to waterboarding, or the right and wrong of the Iraqi invasion, I would ask you, Hatidua, whether you can conceive of any hypothetical situation in which torture--without limits, even--would be ethically justified as national policy. The classic example, of course is the scenario in which the government has a strong indication that a nuclear weapon has been smuggled into Manhattan and is triggered to explode in 24 hours. CIA has in their custody an individual who, to a high degree of probablility, knows where the weapon is located. He is one life--an important one under American law--and worthy of the presumption of innocence (back Jerry, back Boy!). But there are over 10 million people in the New York area--lives as worthy as his. You are President Obama or Bush or McCain. Would you resort to torture in the absence of any other effective measure?
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Within the limits of what you propose, I have no problem with torture whatsoever. However....defining those limits once a thread has run this long is a bit late in the race to be changing the rules. Excluding the right or wrong of invading Iraq from the equation after so many are ready to attach a positive and negative wire to some Iraqi's nuts is sweeping the precursor of this discussion conveniently under the table.
It'd be a lot like saying that Saddam didn't like the way a number of things were done here and decided to liberate us (save the U.N. bovine fecal matter for someone who ignores the fact that the U.S. picks which resolutions to uphold and which to ignore) and once invaded, decides to start extracting info from all the good 'ole boys with shotguns in pickups who took potshots at his Revolutionary Guard troops who ride through town on camels each afternoon. Would the Iraqi army guys be wrong to hook up your nuts to an outlet to find out information that they never would have needed had they stayed in their own little sand box?
I'm not against going abroad and getting some use out of the arsenal our tax dollars fund if justified. I have issue with the enthusiasm with which we play international bully and everyone back home jumps on the "fry their balls" mob mentality. I'd like to think most could rise above that but I've been wrong numerous times before
