Thread: Is this Americas future?

Originally Posted by gssixgun

...Now lets take it a step farther, and discuss torture.....

Is it wrong to use torture????
Is it wrong to use torture to save a life????

I would be the first to say that torture just for the sake of inflicting pain is wrong, BUT torture to save a life ?????

Now before you answer out of a false sense of morality, you know where I will take this if you just say No... I will get personal with it, so really think about the answer, how far are you willing to go to save a life????

Wow this thread has run far afield.

The problems with torture are many but I will list the issues I have with it:

1. I am a big supporter of The Golden Rule. I don't expect our people to be tortured and therefore I cannot condone our people doing the torturing.
2. Studies tend to indicate that the reliability of information gained via torture is questionable.
3. What torture methods are acceptable? There are some that would be considered "torture lite" such as sleep deprivation, extreme hot or cold environments, waterboarding, stress positions.What if they don't get your desired result? Do you then proceed to thumbscrews, the rack, branding, flaying, vivisection, disembowelment? I guess then you may very well torture your prisoner to death. Then rather than torturing to save a life, what have you accomplished?
4. There is a definite danger of the torturer deciding he/she enjoys torturing another human being. This was proven is a famous prison experiment.

I was attached to a ship that was in drydock getting a missile system upgrade. Someone was sabotaging the work being done to the submarine by cutting cables associated with the weapons systems. I was accused of being the sabotuer and taken by NIS (Naval Investigative Service) to a little unmarked room and beatn up for a while by two guys. The threatened to make me disappear and that my family and neighbors would be told I was a deserter. They burned me with cigarettes and stuck a .357 in my mouth and squeezed the trigger on an empty chamber. They hit me with a telephone book. I was made to stand at attention for seven hours. Then they let me go. I was re-assigned to another ship before they found the civilian yard worker that was cutting the cables. Torture sucks.