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Daily Beast

Poll: Almost 60% of teens think some enhanced interrogation is okay

A new study by the American Red Cross obtained exclusively by The Daily Beast found that a surprising majority—almost 60 percent—of American teenagers thought things like water-boarding or sleep deprivation are sometimes acceptable. More than half also approved of killing captured enemies in cases where the enemy had killed Americans. When asked about the reverse, 41 percent thought it was permissible for American troops to be tortured overseas. In all cases, young people showed themselves to be significantly more in favor of torture than older adults…

Legal scholars see societal influences that may be responsible for de-stigmatizing torture, including increasingly graphic media. “I think it suggests the national conscious is becoming more and more corroded and more accustomed to the violation of fundamental principles of human rights and international law,” says Lawrence Tribe, a constitutional law professor at Harvard, who blames programs like 24 that trivialize serious issues. (Tribe, along with nearly 300 legal colleagues, sent President Obama a letter last month decrying the prison conditions of Bradley Manning, the army private accused of leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks.)

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That’s just because they think they’re cool.

princetrumpet on April 13, 2011 at 9:20 AM

I think it suggests the national conscious is becoming more and more corroded and more accustomed to the violation of fundamental principles of human rights and international law,” says Lawrence Tribe, a constitutional law professor at Harvard, who blames programs like 24 that trivialize serious issues

Waterboarding and sleep deprivation are not torture Mr Ivy League Constitutional liar ~~lawyer~~.
Harvard is the same joint that gave a law degree to Barack Insane Obama.
Whatever!

darwin-t on April 13, 2011 at 9:23 AM

Teenagers? Seriously?

Bishop on April 13, 2011 at 9:24 AM

I blame comic books and that Rock and Roll music those dang kids are listening to these days.

strictnein on April 13, 2011 at 9:27 AM

There is hope.

jake-the-goose on April 13, 2011 at 9:28 AM

says Lawrence Tribe, a constitutional law professor

Oh, like that profession means anything anymore.

The Mega Independent on April 13, 2011 at 9:28 AM

National security and counterterrorism ain’t pattycakes and unicorn farts.

Glad even yoots are seeing this.

Good Lt on April 13, 2011 at 9:28 AM

Especially when Chuck Norris does it!

Ward Cleaver on April 13, 2011 at 9:29 AM

Same poll for TSA molestations, please.

rogerb on April 13, 2011 at 9:32 AM

Abby Adams on April 13, 2011 at 9:32 AM

Have you read facebook? These kids are not only okay with it, they practice it.

Fallon on April 13, 2011 at 9:33 AM

This Hahvahd turd is a global, one-world government yahoo who “says” he’s a constitutional lawyer. Ivy league loser socialist….

HomeoftheBrave on April 13, 2011 at 9:34 AM

Two words: Jack Bauer.

pookysgirl on April 13, 2011 at 9:34 AM

It’s either because their American Idol,MTV lightworker is in the White House or they think “Enhanced Interrogation” is a new Hip Hop artist.

Dr. Carlo Lombardi on April 13, 2011 at 9:42 AM

How is sleep dep torture?

blatantblue on April 13, 2011 at 9:45 AM

60% of teens think it’s ok to dress a mass murderer up in women’s clothing, keep him up late in a cold room, and make him listen to Christian Aguilera!?

Horrors!

Lehosh on April 13, 2011 at 9:46 AM

Cool!

Blake on April 13, 2011 at 9:49 AM

Honestly, the Left is shooting itself in the foot on this one. They went completely ballistic screeching about “torture”, so when normal people figured out that what moonbats were calling “torture” was actually like being a college freshman they all yawned.

Lehosh on April 13, 2011 at 9:50 AM

After watching reporter after reporter voluntarily go through water-boarding, how can anyone believe that it’s torture. Uncomfortable, sure, but torture? As for sleep deprivation with rock music, how does that differ from college?

flyfisher on April 13, 2011 at 10:01 AM

How is sleep dep torture?

blatantblue on April 13, 2011 at 9:45 AM

During Hell Week in my fraternity years ago, over five nights, my pledge brothers and I got two hours, two hours, an hour and a half, an hour, and then 15 minutes. I supplemented it with 45 minutes during a physics exam and another 45 minutes when a history prof played a movie on Friday morning.

I’m fine, though I would have believed anything you told me back then.

Beyond that, I love how liberals have insisted that gratuitious sex and violence on TV has no effect on kids. Now, a survey confirms that we have raised a generation of Vlad the Impalers, and suddenly it’s all Jack Bauer’s fault. But then again, it’s an evil Fox Network show.

BuckeyeSam on April 13, 2011 at 10:09 AM

Solution: increased funding for PBS to develop a show in which Mr. Rogers teaches kid how to interrogate terrorists.

By the way, I didn’t click to the article, but I wonder how kids feel about Patriot Act wiretaps. Haven’t parents of these kids been monitoring their online activity for years?

BuckeyeSam on April 13, 2011 at 10:11 AM

How is sleep dep torture?

blatantblue on April 13, 2011 at 9:45 AM

Have you ever tried to get a teenager out of bed on a Saturday morning?

CurtZHP on April 13, 2011 at 10:25 AM

Maybe they just have a strong desire not to be killed by terrorists.

mbs on April 13, 2011 at 10:36 AM

Well, give them all a few more years of enhanced leftist indoctrination in school, and they’ll bludgeon this out of them.

I’ll bet Meghan McLame is very upset about this.

Kensington on April 13, 2011 at 10:57 AM

When asked about the reverse, 41 percent thought it was permissible for American troops to be tortured overseas.

This is not helpful, you dumb kids. What we need to do is send a strong message to the world that waterboarding is the very zenith of human cruelty: “Gosh, I sure hope that none of our troops ever get waterboarded, because it’s just staggeringly horrific. There’s nothing worse you could even imagine doing to an American soldier than waterboarding him; might as well forget about all that old-school stuff with knives and car batteries. And if you get captured, you better spill what you know darn fast, because wow, you sure wouldn’t want to suffer the soul-extinguishing agony of waterboarding even for five seconds. Yup, any torturer with an ounce of pride uses waterboarding; everything else is an embarrassing kids’ game that’ll get you laughed out of all the cool torturer clubs.”

Fabozz on April 13, 2011 at 11:06 AM

So now we can divide teens into two categories: the bored and the water-board.

Dr. Charles G. Waugh on April 13, 2011 at 11:16 AM

Sorry, but I won’t waste a click on that tripe, although the poll results are interesting. Apparently the younger generation is more realistic than their parents. But any analysis that begins with the assumption that waterboarding a known terrorist mass-murderer to obtain his fellow murdering terrorists’ plans for further mass murder is the morally equivalent to breaking the legs of POWs at random in case they might know something isn’t worth a minute of my time.

novaculus on April 13, 2011 at 11:18 AM