You are welcome to rejoin civilization

[Warik]

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What makes you believe that torturing "a captured terrorist that knows every detail of a coming attack" will give you the right information?

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What makes you believe that asking a "captured terrorist that knows every detail of a coming attack" politely will give you the right information? Or any?

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First, discount all of the publicized issues of torture not working well at all, as well as documented instances in recent history where tortured people gave incorrect information.

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Valid point. Since torture has been unsuccessful in more than 0% of cases, then we should avoid it completely.

Hey, rehabilitation in a mental facility for felons who are ruled to be insane fails in more than 0% of the cases doesn't it? Let's abandon the system and just lock those loonies up.

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Now that we've got that out of the way, you now have the option of torturing someone who may be willing to even blow himself up for what he believes in. So, you've captured this terrorist who knows where a bomb is, and you're going to pull his fingernails off until he cracks?

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Being willing to die for a cause is much different than being willing to suffer and NOT die for a cause. There's a whole different psychological effect in play. Boom = instant death. Pulling off fingernails = prolonged pain, with no death. LYING about information and having that lie discovered only guarantees more prolonged pain.

Will it work in 100% of cases? No.

Will it work in more than 0% of cases? Yes.

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You'll need to do some convincing before I'll believe it'll work.

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I'm not saying it will work every time. I'm saying it will work often enough to save lives, and it will be used infrequently enough to avoid gross human rights atrocities from taking place because the parties involved will have to justify their actions. FAR FEWER "innocent" (and I use that term very lightly) people will be tortured for information if the parties involved know that they could be hung out to dry if they're wrong.

Like I said: the system will regulate itself.

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Now, assume the United States starts sanctioning torture. I would hazard a guess that, in a war against an extremist ideology that seems to hate us with a passion, torturing them wouldn't do much to help our cause.

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Wait wait wait - hold on second! Are you saying that all terrorists are Muslim extremists who are all willing to die for their cause???

You know, there are people out there who use terror as a means to attempt to influence governments who are NOT willing to die for their cause.

Besides that, does the fact that a terrorist organization is composed of Muslim extremists guarantee that EVERYONE in the organization is a Muslim extremist who is willing to die for the cause? You're telling me that nobody works for these people for money?

Do you think every last US soldier, who is dedicated to his cause (i.e. the protection of the United States) is willing to die for his country? How many captured US soldiers in history do you think have cracked under torture by enemy forces?

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Also, it gives us zero right to criticise or do anything against another nation or group who tortures American citizens (think our soldiers overseas).

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I don't agree at all. Look at the circumstances. I am not advocating for the torture of captured enemy combatants in a war. I'm advocating for the torture of captured terrorists who may have information on an impending attack on innocent civilians.

So, what gives us the right to criticize? Simple: "Hey, we don't torture your captured soldiers, so stop torturing ours."

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Torture is terrible.

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One of the reasons why it works...

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From every single account I've heard, it doesn't work in achieving what it's supposed to

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Sample size.

Just how many accounts have you heard?

How many accounts have the people you heard your accounts from heard?

Why don't you go to this website and read the report that lists every person every country in the entire world has tortured this year and what the results were?

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it opposes so much of what this country has historically stood for.

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You appear to be an intelligent person. Please don't tell me that you believe that the US hasn't justifiably used torture in history to achieve an admirable goal just because CNN wasn't around back then.

[tolbiny]

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You're right, it is, and yet we are doing it on a fairly regular basis in our War on Terror.

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Can you name some of the innocent people we've imprisoned and tortured?

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Go back three years ago, and take a look at the ~1000 or so prisoners who were released from gitmo after between 6-12 months of imprisonment.
Why were none of them charged?