Torture of an enemy, or salvation of innocence?

Here is the deal; when torture is done- it is done so that the tortured will believe that by tellin the proper information, they will pay less pain.

Do you believe that we should torture one enemy, in order to save 100 innoccent people(i.e. terrorist attack, if they were soldiers/enemies etc.)?

Loose an enemy, and save them? Or let them die, and him survive?

Im all for torture in respect that lifes will be saved from the information.

Has the media really reported any torture recently? I mean, think about it..

The two biggest stories didn\'t include torture. The big one was the Iraqi prisoner "scandal".. they were only humiliated.. probably not physically harmed at all. The other one, the beheading, was quick.

I believe that it depends on your enemy.  I think that people and groups who follow the geneva convention/rules of war should be given the same treatment, and thus no torture.  That said, there are groups out there who don\'t obey the rules that the world has laid down to govern combat, and as such I don\'t think they should be protected by those rules.  Torture against enemies like that to save lives I think would be justified.

You just have to be carefull with that arguement...

1 to save 100?

1 to save 1?

2 to save 1? (2 enemies to save one ally)

kill a million to save 5 million?

At what point does it become too many?

Blade, actually from what I have heard or read, seems only one has been beaten badly by our guys. Supposedly the person was beat head to toe and packed in ice. Dont know if they died or not. The supposed rapes and other beatings are still under investigation as the nature of some of the dead.(how they did die)

Torture doesn\'t have to be beatings...

Withholding food, water, sleep, warmth, etc...I\'m all for it if it\'ll get us info we need...

This applies only to actual POWs and not to these terrorists...

They can beat the crap out of them, for all I care...

I could care less about how they treat the fanatics as long as they dont go around preaching that all to common "holier than thou" attitude.

Whether we care about the fanatics or not, torturing one fanatic only creates two more.

Only if they find out about the first fanatic....

I hate to say it but truly bruatl methods I think are the only solution to some of the zealots that are out there... they certainly wouldn\'t hesitate to use them, and as such... well... it\'s a language they understand.

If high level known terrorists started showing up with their eyes, tongues, fingers, and ears cut off... but still alive and obviously medically treated for the injuries?  With nobody out there to blame for such acts.. I think you would see a dramatic decrease in people willing to be terrorists.  It\'s one thing to die for your belief - it\'s another to have to live the rest of your life like that.

I hate to say it, but I don\'t think that there is a civilized way to combat truly uncivilized groups.

There is no real answer as to how to deal with them except on their own level. Which IMO was the biggest mistake as far as going into Iraq.

If we do deal with them on that level, we no longer have an excuse.

Well, I didn\'t agree with going into Iraq in the first place.. at least not for the reasons they did... had they stated they were going in because of his human rights violations, oppresive regime, I probably would have been more supportive.  The whole weapons of mass destruction was just too weak of a reason.

And yes, I realize the hippocricy of supporting human rights violations in supporting torture and brutal methods for dealing with terrorists... but frankly, I think that we should think of human rights as something that all humans have... until they do something that violates them so much that they forfeit those rights... it\'s unfortunate that it means some of our own people will have to use their methods.. but it is really the only thing that will work against real fanatics.

Civilized discourse, honorable war... it\'s impossible against a \'insane\' foe.  Negotiation cannot be an option, because it opens the floodgates.

Frankly, I don\'t really get upset when \'terrorists\' send in a suicide bomber that blows up a barracks of an enemy army (though it\'s labeled as terrorism), or when they bomb a military ship in a harbor -> both cases have happened to the US military.  I don\'t think we can expect an enemy with little military power to fight a war on our terms, and I think that those kinds of attacks are justified if you think you believe you are at war with a mighty military power... but when terrorists decide to suicide bomb a bus, or a church?  Taking the war to civilians is I think the point at which they should lose their human rights.

Originally posted by FatalXception


Frankly, I don\'t really get upset when \'terrorists\' send in a suicide bomber that blows up a barracks of an enemy army (though it\'s labeled as terrorism), or when they bomb a military ship in a harbor -> both cases have happened to the US military.  I don\'t think we can expect an enemy with little military power to fight a war on our terms, and I think that those kinds of attacks are justified if you think you believe you are at war with a mighty military power... but when terrorists decide to suicide bomb a bus, or a church?  Taking the war to civilians is I think the point at which they should lose their human rights.

Thats how I pretty much feel about the situation with these lunatics.

Remember as some in here have said, war isnt fair.

[videoholic]

Beat the shit out of them for all I care.  As long as they are terrorists or servents under Saddam who have information.  Beat them silly.

As long as they are terrorists that have information, go right on ahead.  Some torture is sick and I would stray away from that.  Stuff like keeping a terrorist in a dark room with limited food until he started to speak up would be a torture tactic I would support.  Stuff like cutting off fingers or beating someone senseless is not right to me.  If anything, bring the terrorists to America and charge them with the death penalty and use that if they don\'t talk.  

We are better than those terrorists anyway.  Seeing us \'humiliate\' them made me laugh if anything.  Yes we damaged their egos and that\'s fine, it\'s when we start \'beheading" terrorists when we have lost it just like them.  Deep down, they wish they were us, and it kills them inside.

Errrr...death would be welcomed by them because they would consider it martyrdom...

A better method doesn\'t involve physical pain but mental and emotional pain, such as "making them feel like women" and covering them in pig sh*t and blood, etc etc etc...

Also, give them daily b*tch slaps with a shoe...

And yelling "I\'M....................................

...well, if you\'ve been around the boards the past few weeks, you know what they should be yelling.