Waterboarding?

Question

Consider that the use charged a Japanese Officer Yukio Asano in 1947 of "War Crimes" for waterboarding a US civilian to obtain information. He recieved 15 years of hard labor.

How can we do it to others?

I think, Bush and anyone in his administration who advocates Waterboarding, should prove that it is not torture by being Waterboarded for a few hours.

Just on a side note:
Everywhere I have looked up Waterboarding, says it is a form of torture.

in the first sentence

use = US

Almost all of the detainees in cuba, have never been proven to be anything other than "Citizens" of some country.

Very few have been brought to trial on any charges.

I hear a lot of people saying "The end justifies the means". I deny that logic, we are supposed to be better than that.

But if the end really justifies the means then we should have turned Afghanistan (because that is where Bin Laden was hiding then) into a glass parking lot with a tactical nuke, and sent a real message. You mess with us the price will be terrible… Period.

We will torture and kill civilians in secret, but not openly? That is just cowardice, plain and simple… Either walk the walk or don’t.

John W:
Daniel Pearl, that a completely different matter… If I let my wife meet with known terrorists that want to kill her… boo hoo. He knew the risks going in. Journalists who do stupid crap and die, get no sympathy. Also Saddam is a good point; one of the reasons given for why we toppled his regime was because he was torturing his people… Ironic isn’t it…

Answer 1

Why narrow it down to just waterboarding? Bush and his Bushites have done almost unfathomable damage to this country and it's image throughout the world. Almost any issue he has faced he's ruined.
Now many will say that it isn't just Bush, and while that may be true, he deserves all the negativity he gets because he himself said that he has to make all the tough decisions. Well he certainly has done that, and every one of them has been the WRONG decision.
He actually has the gall to reprimand Congress for not giving him more money for his unwinable war while at the same time saying no to the children of this country. I don't know how he can even look at himself in the mirror.
He lies every chance he gets to the American people then steps in front of the microphone and ACTUALLY thinks that people still believe what he says. What really almost makes me barf though is how his cronies applaud every time he says boo. That's whats wrong with this country. We need some representatives with backbone...people that would actually show their disapproval of his Hitleristic attitude and let him know that we don't like what he's doing. Every one of those republican supporters should boo and hiss him. Applauding only encourages him to continue to ruin this wonderful country that he seeming loves to destroy.

Answer 2

Why don't you ask Daniel Pearl's widow what she thinks of waterboarding? After Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the mastermind of 9/11, was captured he was interrogated using waterboarding. He lasted 35 seconds before he gave up the names of over a dozen other prominent terrorist figures and their plans to attack the United States. He later bragged that he personally beheaded Daniel Pearl and was responsible for dozens of other terrorist attacks around the world. Waterboarding was too good for this monster.

If waterboarding is "torture", what do you consider what Saddam did to his own people?
http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/silenced/torture.htm

Answer 3

You are so right. I heard the weekend crew at ABC news refer to it as "harsh interrogation" and I almost lost my lunch. Bush and Cheney have broken every moral code ever written. They have trashed our constitution, broken the Geneva Convention, etc. They should both be tried as war criminals and executed.

Answer 4

Part and partly because we won the war. History is written by the winners. During WWII allied fighter pilots once finished escorting the bombers were ordered to get down on the deck and shoot at anything that moves to demoralize the German people. This included civilian targets such as horse drawn carts and farm equipment.

Some pilots were worried that if shot down and captured they'd be tried for war crimes yet they did their duty. War can be ugly.

As for interrogating spies and terrorists what do you suggest we do. Threaten to take away their Korans? Perhaps deny them any sugar for their tea?

Water boarding is torture, originally used during the Inquisition back in the middle ages. Still we're dealing with people with that mindset.

In Islamic countries they behead people, chop off the hands of thieves and stone women to death for adultery. We're dealing with savage people, and savage people only understand savage means.

EDIT: The United States also treated captured German and Japanese POW's very kindly. In the case of German prisoners many of them ate better than your average American. We did this because we figured that Axis nations would do the same. Did they? I think not. Treating your enemies kindly won't make them think any different of you. In fact in many Islamic cultures it shows a weakness and weakness is awarded with disrespect.

To those who think water boarding didn't happen during the Clinton Administration I've got some beachfront property in Barstow California you might be interested in.

Answer 5

What do you want us to do? Put them in a comfy chair, give them a cocktail, then say please tell us what we want to know? These are people who would love to cut off your head and drag your body through the streets, and you're worried about a form of questioning that will not kill or maim the terrorist? And the example you give is of the questioning of a civilian, not a person who was caught on the battlefield. There is a difference, though you'll never understand that.

Answer 6

You're right. It's torture. How can we claim any moral authority in the world anymore?

Answer 7

Civilians have rights

Terrorists do not

Big difference

Answer 8

bush & his supporters = do as I say, not as I do