Should Torture Be An Issue?
I took a visit to Andrew Sullivan's blog, The Daily Dish [time.blogs.com] today because he was on the PBS show NOW [www.pbs.org] yesterday and I found what he had to say very insightful. He is a life long Republican who is disgusted with the way the neocons have done away with the true ideals and core beliefs of the Republican party. He said that not only is this election a referendum on the Republican party but it is an intervention. Sullivan believes the Republican party needs to lose this election to save it.
While on his blog I came across a post called, Exibiting Torture [time.blogs.com] in which he has a video of a Fox News* reporter who underwent waterboarding to see if it could truly be considered torture. I highly recommend you go to his blog and watch the video. Please keep in mind this reporter knew he would not die and he was in noway under the same conditions as a suspected terrorist. Below is what Sullivan had to say about the exibition of waterboarding...
It's important to remember that psychologically, he's in a very different space than prisoners who have no autonomy, and who are not aware that they can stop this at any time. Even so, his conclusion is inescapable:"As far as torture goes, at least in this controlled experiment, to me this seemed like a pretty efficient mechanism."It is indeed a pretty efficient torture technique that triggers involuntary extreme panic and fear in order to get information - any information - in order to have it stopped. The legal definition of torture is the infliction of "severe mental or physical pain or suffering" to extract information. The reporter essentially cops to "severe mental suffering" at the very least. I am grateful to Fox for not mincing words. This is torture. That a prisoner can survive it with minimal outward signs of physical harm is one of its benefits for torturers, because they can repeat it endlessly until a human being is still alive but reduced to an empty shell. And that is why the Khmer Rouge used it. And the Soviets. And the Nazis. And George W. Bush.
This is also on the ballot next Tuesday. Do you believe America should torture its military detainees and terror suspects? Do you believe the president - and the president alone - should be able to arrest anyone at will, name him or her an "enemy combatant," deny him or her habeas corpus rights, and torture him or her? If you believe he should have that right, vote Republican.
Your vote tomorrow is about more than politics. It is indeed about values, American values. A vote for the Republicans is a vote for torture.
*I may have to change my views of Fox News because in this instance they truly are being fair and balanced in their reporting.
While on his blog I came across a post called, Exibiting Torture [time.blogs.com] in which he has a video of a Fox News* reporter who underwent waterboarding to see if it could truly be considered torture. I highly recommend you go to his blog and watch the video. Please keep in mind this reporter knew he would not die and he was in noway under the same conditions as a suspected terrorist. Below is what Sullivan had to say about the exibition of waterboarding...
It's important to remember that psychologically, he's in a very different space than prisoners who have no autonomy, and who are not aware that they can stop this at any time. Even so, his conclusion is inescapable:"As far as torture goes, at least in this controlled experiment, to me this seemed like a pretty efficient mechanism."It is indeed a pretty efficient torture technique that triggers involuntary extreme panic and fear in order to get information - any information - in order to have it stopped. The legal definition of torture is the infliction of "severe mental or physical pain or suffering" to extract information. The reporter essentially cops to "severe mental suffering" at the very least. I am grateful to Fox for not mincing words. This is torture. That a prisoner can survive it with minimal outward signs of physical harm is one of its benefits for torturers, because they can repeat it endlessly until a human being is still alive but reduced to an empty shell. And that is why the Khmer Rouge used it. And the Soviets. And the Nazis. And George W. Bush.
This is also on the ballot next Tuesday. Do you believe America should torture its military detainees and terror suspects? Do you believe the president - and the president alone - should be able to arrest anyone at will, name him or her an "enemy combatant," deny him or her habeas corpus rights, and torture him or her? If you believe he should have that right, vote Republican.
Your vote tomorrow is about more than politics. It is indeed about values, American values. A vote for the Republicans is a vote for torture.
*I may have to change my views of Fox News because in this instance they truly are being fair and balanced in their reporting.
posted by Sandy at 1:42 PM
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