My problem is not the waterboarding per se. However, if it’s considered torture – and most groups seem to define it as such – and the United States doesn’t legally allow torture – and it doesn’t seem like we do – then we shouldn’t be condoning it.

I didn’t say we shouldn’t be *doing* it. If I thought someone had information about an imminent terrorist attack, I’d do everything in my power to get them to spill the beans, including torture them.

The same way I’d expect a police officer to break all sorts of constitutional laws if he thinks he can save a life or put a bad guy away.

Of course, if you’re right, you’ll never get prosecuted for doing the right thing. If you’re wrong and it leads to nothing or there was nothing in the first place, you’ll probably be punished.

That’s a good thing, because while I’m certainly not pro-terrorist, I don’t like the idea that we only condone waterboarding sometimes, with regard to some people. That seems like an awfully slippery slope.

Making it illegal (with the tacit understanding that you’re not going to get in trouble if it works to your benefit) provides an effective level of deterrence, because you only do it when it’s absolutely necessary. That’s what I think, anyway.

I really don’t care. I’d pull fingernails out of a prisoner if it meant I saved my countrymen

That reminded me of my favorite scene from A Man for All Seasons

Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned ’round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man’s laws, not God’s! And if you cut them down, and you’re just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I’d give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety’s sake!

Proud Rino on April 21, 2009 at 8:53 PM