Should we torture terrorists?
In response to a huge topic today on Facebook, I was asked to comment on waterboarding. Since FB limits responses I will comment here and expand on the issue. The original question was this.
You are a CIA operative. You just captured a terrorist. All evidence points to the fact that he has planted a dirty bomb in your city set to explode in 1 hour killing 300,000 (including your family) on the initial blast and another 200,000 from radiation poisoning two weeks afterwards. So far you have been unable to get the information out of the terrorist. Would you waterboard to get the information?
Here is my viewpoint on the subject with as many ideas and references that I can think of.
One of the hallmarks of my political life will be to listen to all sides, gather up all the information I can, study the issues and consult with as many experts in the field and then pray on it. Once I have done that I feel I will be well qualified to make a determination on how to proceed. Knowing that, I will always upset some, not go far enough for others, and hopefully make the correct decision based on all the facts. This topic is just as much factual and it is emotional. Let’s begin. I will always give you an answer to the best of my abilities.
A. I have never been waterboarded.
B. I have never seen anyone waterboarded (or tortured in a military setting). I only understand the technique from the internet and the news. My understanding is you tip someone upside down, cover their face with a cloth and pour water on them. I am not sure if you plug their mouth with something. Someone help me out here.
I listened to folks that have been tortured before like John McCain, Jim Stockdale (VP for Perot campaign) and many more. (Read their books it is brutal). He says it does no good. Then I read that waterboarding prevented an additional attack on L.A. after 911.
It’s nice that on the TV show 24 anytime they ‘torture’ someone they get the right answer. In reality that seldom happens and in under an hour. They do a good job of creating the emotionally justification for doing this and getting the information. “Yeah just send in Jack Bauer to get what you want.” They all hate what he does, but they let him do in a pinch. I imagine the viewers are rooting for him too as per the ratings!
The whole point of waterboarding as I understand it is to create a psychological response where you are tricked to thinking you are drowning. Again I have never drowned so I have no idea what it is like and if that kind physiological torture works firsthand. We all have to take the Gov’t word on that. Again if anyone of you have been waterboarded and want to share their experience, please go to Facebook and comment under my post on this today.
I have also never intentionally inflicted bodily harm to any human being in all of my entire life. For those that are quick to say “go ahead and waterboard the scum” do you mean someone else to do this, or would you step up to the plate and torture another human being to the point of killing them? Some people can do this. I can’t visualize doing that sitting in my nice climate controlled office today. But under a threat of imminent attack, with lives on the line, I have no idea what I may be capable of doing. I also have no children, or family close by, so those heartstrings that most of you would have for family members would not apply to me. I understand they are powerful feelings that can and would make you do things that no one would think possible.
One of the comments made by Jeff Weber on FB spoke to how immoral it would be to allow 500,000 people die if you stood by and didn’t do everything to prevent it is very powerful. I agree. How could you watch an entire city get wiped out knowing that if you had done something including waterboarding to stop an explosion? If you were in the same city and were going to die anyway, what would you have to have to gain or lose by trying? If you do nothing, you die, if you do something you still might die, but you could also save your life and everyone else’s.
I have not been trained in any ‘enhanced interrogation’ techniques, so if I said to torture someone, it would be with the understanding that someone else would do it. Put me in the room or force me to do the torture, I can guarantee I would have a very hard time hurting someone to the point of them begging for their lives and inflicting brutal pain on anyone to bring them to this point. However, if they had just killed one of my family members, who knows how easy it would be to torture another human being. I wonder if the torturers themselves have emotional issues later on in life.
It would be nice if all the terrorists would confess right away and none of this would be necessary, but we know that doesn’t happen and under a strict timeframe with thousands of lives on the line, decisions are made that will always be second guessed later on.
Could I torture another human being to the point of his death, to save lives? I don’t know. Can any of you definitively say you could beat the living daylights out of someone to get an answer that may or may not be the right answer? I challenge you to look deep into your own soul and say how you would react.
This is an important issue and I cannot make a decision yet on how I should think, and how I should respond to torturing an individual under this scenario which is not that far fetched. I need more information to make this important decision. I wish I could say, “Hell yes, do what it takes to get the information out of the scum!” like many have said on FB today. I haven’t been convinced by either side as of yet. I would like to think if I was put in that position, I would remember that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one. (Spock). Could I cause an individuals death if that was the end result to save 500,000? On paper it sound logical, but in reality it is never that clear.
I hope that no matter what I would do, I hope I could square it with God someday. Is the death of one individual worse than the deaths of 500,000 on your conscience?
Help me out folks!