Waterboarding was a torture saddam might use, so why was it wrong when he used it but okay when bush does?

Answer 1

Sadam also gassed his own people, does that mean that the United States should do that to its citizens?

If the United States is to be the moral leader in the world, then they cannot engage in torture, because that would make us no better than them.

Answer 2

You aren't going to get a good answer with your question worded that way. I think your real question deals with whether or not we torture people, and why we criticize it if we do it.

The definitions in earlier posts concerning what amounts to torture are all misleading. Torture is defined differently in different political texts, dictionaries, etc. Since I cannot give you the absolute one, I will give you the definition used by the UN. We signed the UN charter, we are required, by international law, to follow it's decisions (though we often don't).

"For the purposes of this Convention, torture means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions."

As you can see, mental suffering is also considered torture.

I am not sure whether or not water boarding is torture but I can tell you that the Bush administration reportedly decided to disallow water boarding in interrogations. Though this has not been made public, news organizations including the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal have reported it.

As to whether or not tactics by Saddam and others are worse: give it a rest. Stop judging the actions of the US by the actions of others. By that logic, anything a person does short of genocide is acceptable because "at least it's better than what Hitler did."

Answer 3

Waterboarding is something Saddam might use as a warmup to dipping someone in a vat of acid and other incredibly cruel and murderous things. If all he ever did was waterboard I don't think anyone would have a problem with it.

As I said on another thread:

"Another liberal who will complain about and blame Bush even though they oppose every single measure to try and stop it. Supposed torture, wiretapping, etc. As if we are just supposed to magically find out where an attack will happen and just stop it."

Answer 4

kinda like when the cops carry guns and the criminals carry guns..besides..until we learned that technique from Saddam..the worst we did was put dirty panties on the captives head..except that some rather enjoyed it..so we had to up the ante..prior to that we used to play the song that says something like this.."she wore an itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polk-a-dot bikini" on a record player with the record mounted off center..you can see how that would be torture..but it left no marks and the head physically still attached..

Answer 5

particular, it fairly is torture. Torture is in simple terms the unique observe for "more suitable interrogation technique". whilst waterboarding became used for the time of the Bush admin., it became criminal, properly. So, particular, i think it fairly is torture, yet no, i don't think Bush became incorrect.

Answer 6

first off... Waterboarding is NOT torture.
tor·ture – noun – the act of inflicting excruciating pain, as punishment or revenge, as a means of getting a confession or information, or for sheer cruelty.

Its frighting its interrogation Not Torture. Why do you think its Bush that's "Torturing", Bush isn't in charge of interrogation there's other people that is in charge of that, but no its ALL Bush's fault. We have used Waterboarding a grand total of 4 times... its not routine like you may think! the United States isn't as dark and evil as you may think it is.

Answer 7

When, exactly, did Pres. Bush personally take part in waterboarding? Since that never happened, can you provide a link to some document, or some other sort of proof that Pres. Bush even had any input at all over how subjects were interrogated?

Answer 8

We train military members with waterboarding

So its ok for our troops to get put through it but not the terrorists?


FYI- waterboarding is not torture.

Answer 9

When your waterboarding you still have your head attached.

Answer 10

Bill Clinton believed in water boarding. They asked Hillary at the debate.