Would you torture a thug, to get information , to protect American citizens?

Question

I have heard numerous times, torture is not a legitimate means of gathing information.
Okay, What if it is the ONLY means you have? Would you try, to save American lives from being annilated, ???? Or would you keep insisting torture is inneffective???

Answer 1

The problem with the people that are complaining about the way we tread the terrorist enemy are the same people that is defending the illegals and every body that is against the USA in one way or the other. The war that we the Americans are fighting is against a regime that doesn't have no respect for the Western countries or any body that is not Muslims. Right now they will kill their own kind just to hurt, in some way the Americans that are helping them in their struggle. They don't have no respect for life or the human race. These are the people that we are fighting, they don't have rules or common laws to go by, they don't respect humans race, they don't care if they are women, children, civilians or who ever. We are the enemy the western countries, the devil and their mission is to exterminate us. This the kind of enemy we are fighting they are evil. In any war in order to win we have to know the enemy, be like the enemy and behave like the enemy. I learned this when I was a soldier and was send to Vietnam to fight. Maybe that was one of the reason I came back home. Maybe this is one of the reason that we haven't being hit again in our country. Tortures is something that we can not dismiss from our arsenal, not with these people., not yet.

Answer 2

If I thought it was ineffective, then why would I use it ever??

Do I think torture is needed? Maybe in some circumstances. But is it used as the "easy" way to extract info? You bet it is.

And one must think about it. If I were being tortured, and asked about something I knew nothing about, I would sing like a bird that I was responsible, and tell them whatever they wanted to hear so they would stop. So I am being tortured, and I am confessing to killing both of the Kennedys and killing Jimmy Hoffa. And I did this all before I was even thought of. . .

Now how effective is it for extracting info?? Will it get you a confession? More than likely. Will it get you the right guy? Not too sure on that one.

Answer 3

Torture, first of all, is a subjective term. There are a myriad of means for harming or scaring a human being. If you mean obvious methods of torture, then you must be ready to debate the fine line of "what is torture..." - possibly without end.

Second, any action you take against another may be construed as legal and/or permissible for some other person/group/country to perform against you or your citizens, family, or associates. "What comes around..." is a real effect.

Harming one to protect a larger group, through any means, is an old philosophical dilemma. There is no right answer. However, rules are all reflexive; what one does can be done back to them, and usually is in history, with aggrevated levels.

Finally, I would answer that torture is not permissible in any case. Whomever harms the group is ultimately responsible, as if you (as torturer) had no knowledge. Torture almost always comes around to haunt the pertpetrators, and the victims can live on to tell the story your of malice, which can change the world against your original wishes. Nelson Mandela and John McCain are good examples of victims of torture that have gone on to speak adamantly about it's terrible costs and ultimate futility - and to influence entire populations about forbidding it. One can believe what they say about such things - their histories, and many like them, give them an authority on the subject few can match.

Answer 4

It depends on what you think "torture" really is. To some it can mean you're being verbally abused or illegally searched by law officials, and to others it means severe body dismemberment or mutilation.

Honestly - the thought of anyone being tortured makes me sick to my stomach. The UNITED STATES should do what's necessary - but refrain from dismembering or any serious mutilation - we're better than that.

Remember the American soldiers who were caught over in Iraq? They had their eyes burned out and were dismembered and all that horrible stuff before they even died!

"This is a two-way street," says Jordan Paust, international law professor at the University of Houston. "We have to consider whether something we do or condone would be acceptable if it were done to one of our people."

Answer 5

Of course. Not only would I try , I would do it. War is war. Legitimate? Why would one care? Ineffective? There are many types of torture. Match the right form to the recipient and they will tell you whatever you want to know. Everyone has a breaking point. Finding what makes a person tick is most important. KNOW YOUR ENEMY. What will work with one may not on the other.

Answer 6

Torture isn't a sturdy ability of extracting innovations. human beings say something to get the torture to stop. no longer in basic terms will torture fail to "shop distinctive American lives" besides the indisputable fact that it additionally breeds resentment, anger and finally, extra terrorists. that isn't any coincidence that the revolt violence against US troops extra effective after the Abu Ghraib pictures have been revealed. Democrats have not stated they "won't do each and everything a threat to guard individuals" that is an untrue and absurd assertion.

Answer 7

If they are in an organization that thinks nothing of resorting to suicide bombing, beheadings and other such horrible things, what makes you think torturing them would have any discernably meaningful outcome? Torture only makes them say what they think you want to hear and lowers the humanity level of the torturer to the thing they are trying to avoid. They are living their worst fear and mirroring it onto the one being tortured. You can call it what you want, but loyalty to flag and country is not one of them. It is cowardly and wrong to torture, no matter what you may believe the benefits are.

Answer 8

Those creatures cannot be thought of as human.
They have been brainwashed to where they don't have a mind of their own.
This is not a gentleman's war. This isn't a war at all. It is a disease that has intermingled with it's own people just like a cancer that is growing in an organ.
If a woman has ovarian cancer, what do they do. Do they go in and separate the cancer cells and remove them. or politely ask them to be nice.

Answer 9

No. This is a tactical answer, not a moral one. I would consider any information gained by torture to be completely unreliable.

Answer 10

dangerous question
this could be viewed from different perspectives
with different answers.
and lots of possibilities for grey areas
if the case is straight forward and dire ,then people will do the exstreme in any case wheather it is legal or not .
Me too