tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30340112.post2652766419701093813..comments2023-10-04T05:42:58.799-05:00Comments on Half Empty: To Waterboard or Not To Waterboard, That IS the QuestionHalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06691384412216558403noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30340112.post-67093515076309610222007-11-12T11:57:00.000-06:002007-11-12T11:57:00.000-06:00Where I can agree with you is that torturing our d...Where I can agree with you is that torturing our detainees does not necessarily cause America to lose its moral authority because since starting the War in Iraq the US has lost any moral authority it already had - and torturing prisoners is all part and parcel.<BR/><BR/>We can be better than this.<BR/><BR/>But besides the moral issue, there are issues of practicality. I go back to the original statements in the field manuals. Information extracted by torture is tainted by the fact that the tortured will say anything the torturer wants to hear.Halhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06691384412216558403noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30340112.post-17595693725774524462007-11-12T00:16:00.000-06:002007-11-12T00:16:00.000-06:00The practice is forbidden to American troops, as w...The practice is forbidden to American troops, as well it should be. It is not forbidden to the CIA, and the US Senate expressly declined to declare it unlawful. Why should some Senators expect an attorney general nominee to declare unlawful what the world's greatest deliberative body would not?<BR/><BR/>Is it really of interest, if the practice saved lives in the case of Sheikh Mohammed, to inquire "at what cost?" The sort answer is, at the cost of some temporary extreme unpleasantness for Mr. Mohammed. As for "losing our moral authority in the eyes of the world," I am moved to doubt.<BR/><BR/>In 1944 US prison guards tortured seven German prisoners until they confessed to having murdered one of their fellow POW's. Having confessed, they were hanged, one after another. Is waterboarding Sheikh Mohammed to gain life-saving intelligence more reprehensible morally than torturing POW's to extract confessions to a crime?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com