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US Calls Waterboarding a War Crime — Till Now

After World War 2, the United States tried, and convicted, Japanese prison camp guards for war crimes because of their use of waterboarding on prisoners of war. It tried and convicted its own soldiers in the 19th century for using torture — waterboarding — in the Spanish American war. It has tried and convicted rogue Texas sheriffs for waterboarding prisoners. The United States has consistently defined waterboarding as torture for over 100 years — and defined torture as a war crime. For a country that loves its history and traditions, we seem to be abandoning a good one.

2007-11-03 21:08:32 · 2 answers · asked by Anonymous in Politics & Government Law & Ethics

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/02/AR2007110201170.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

2007-11-03 21:10:26 · update #1

2 answers

The other answer is nothing but apologist BS.

Waterboarding IS torture. The Bush administration claims we do not engage in torture. Torture is torture. Period. Any other explanation is pure semantics.

2007-11-06 10:26:08 · answer #1 · answered by slushpile reader 6 · 0 0

There also was a time that gentlemen would challenge each other to a duel and pace off, turn and fire.... all so orderly, gentlemenly and dignified...but the result was pretty much the same...one person at least would die.
We also had moments during the beginning of the revolutionary war where we fought like the British and formed nice pretty little ranks. Obviously that isn't how the war was continued since it was a losing proposition.
The ways of warfare change due to the enemy we are fighting. and the current enemy has no conventional tactics, no one counry they work out of, no values for human life, no distinction of non - combatants, civilians or military. We didn't have to necessarily resort to such torture methods back in WW2 and the like, then again these countries still didn't treat our fighting men and women with the same stardards we treated theirs. So America continues to take it on the chin it seems due to some outdated sense of purity which people might reminisce about due to it being a more simple time but no-one really believes that America is as honorably tride and true as it once was. Today, the face of war has changed.
Back then, you knew there wasn't going to be some major landing of Germans or Japanese on our counry becaue it would take an armada of ships sailing across the ocean to get to us. Even during the cold war, the treat of mutual anialation kept the Soviets at bay. They had the capability to hit America on its own soil but feared the consequences of a counterstike.
Today we fight an enemy where information is paramount. They have hit us a few times...911 being sucessful. They use improvised and unconventional ways to hit us. At times Israel was having a bomb rock their city at least once a week always in changing and random locations. All the innocent loss of life. Are you saying that you'd rather be "traditional" at the cost of being unprepared to stop terrorsts in their tracks ? Waterboarding to my knowledge doesn't cause permanent damage that I"m aware of, and i'm suppose to feel all bad about the treatment of or psychological damage to some terrorist (potential informant) and worry about his rights when American lives may be at stake ??
Sure, you can make a case that tortue is inhumane....but so is the war terrorists wage against any country they disagree with or think they have a right to destroy. Just how many innocents or for that fact how many military are you willing to lose to this little novel idea of yours until you scream "uncle" ? We have never had an enemy like this in history.

2007-11-03 21:47:18 · answer #2 · answered by Nightwind 7 · 0 2

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