But when our enemies " Aggressively Interrogate Americans " we prefer to call it "torture" and we deem it as unhuman?
2007-12-12 05:56:57 · 17 answers · asked by Carol 2 in Politics & Government ➔ Politics
because it does sound better, but torture is still inhuman no matter who performs it
2007-12-12 06:01:34 · answer #1 · answered by me 6 · 1⤊ 5⤋
Those are pretty vague charges for very specific instances. And I doubt there is a valid equivalency between the statuses.
The terrorists we've captured do not have legal status. They're not in the custody of the criminal justice system, and are thus not afforded the rights of prisoners of the criminal justice system.
They don't have Prisoner of War status, because they do not abide by any of the requirements of the Geneva Conventions. So they're not protected by international treaties. By all rights, we could have executed them upon capture.
But even with all that said, we still do not torture them. And they have no legal standing to be protected from aggressive interrogation. Legally, the aggressive techniques used - waterboarding, stress postures, sleep deprivation, heat / cold, etc - are not defined anywhere are "torture".
Torture is defined, in all the treaties, as "severe pain or suffering, physical or mental". Whether any of these techniques rise to that level is open to debate. But you have no standing to simply call them "torture".
As for others being tortured around the world, the hue and cry is because they DO have legal standing, and that it occurs to people who are supposed to have some level of protected status in the criminal justice systems, and that what is occurring is in violation of human rights treaties signed by those governments.
Of course, if you were to use a valid example, then it would be much easier to refute your equivalency of two non-comparable situations.
2007-12-12 06:17:54 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Obvously you dont know what you are talking about. Our enemies blow themselves up while killing 100s or even thousands of people. Our enemys behead people. The worst we have done is simulate drowning a person which by the way saved numerous lives. Im sorry that you would rather see innocent people get killed than one of our enemies get in convienenced
2007-12-12 06:13:20 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 1⤋
Our enemies have a torture handbook, showing cartoon drawings of how to torture(that makes it readable for government school graduates) They use video taped be-headings to gin up support among the traditional muslims and fear among the American left. The US does not torture. Dispite the allergy to the truth the American left has, water boarding is not torture(many of our special forces have been water boarded as part of their training, if we are torturing our own troops that should be investigated). If you see moral equality between the US and western culture in general, and islam, you are just too ignorant for words.
2007-12-12 06:06:22 · answer #4 · answered by espreses@sbcglobal.net 6 · 3⤊ 3⤋
Because we are not videotaping our POWs with homemade footage, reciting verses from the Bible before brutally chopping a head off while they are bound and blindfolded on the floor, then sending it out to world media outlets showing this is what will happen if you do not convert to Islam and/or leave the holy lands.
Instead we waterboard, and for some reason people are upset because we are treating terrorists badly. How if these terrorist inmates were not captured, they would still be out there fighting and plotting against us. But who cares, let us still show compassion and kindness to the "peaceful, gentle" terrorist. Because in the end, it is all about spiting the current administration.
No one in the media complained and whined this much about Waco under Clinton, and they were our own. But terrorists who want to see us dead or as slaves, let us show every bit of human compassion we can towards them all because Bush is President and wanting to defy him in anyway possible.
2007-12-12 06:06:28 · answer #5 · answered by Fallen 6 · 4⤊ 3⤋
Sometimes names are used to lighten the load of a horrible thing. When someone dies we say he has passed away or passed on instead of saying he died. When the South lost the civil war they began referring to it as the late troublesome times. But it was a war none the less. So it is not uncommon to expect some to lighten the description so it doesn't sound as bad.
2007-12-12 06:10:03 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 2⤋
Americans have always taken care off war prisoners ever since WW1. It's about time we give back some of their own medicine. Waterboarding is still too simple.... no physical damage
2007-12-12 06:09:45 · answer #7 · answered by Con4Life 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Waterboarding is coersive interigation, in deference to McCian, it is not torture, no on3e is in any danger, they lay you on a board with the head below the level of the lungs so theres no danger of water flowing into them, and they pour water on your face Ouch!
Its not torture unless you hate Bush
2007-12-12 06:11:07 · answer #8 · answered by ? 6 · 4⤊ 1⤋
Until I see an American beheading a prisoner on tv or the web, like AlQueda does, I shall not be concerned.
Look at the bright side of water boarding... It may be the first bath they ever had.
2007-12-12 06:08:11 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 2⤋
If the US condones any kind of torture then they must also condone the torture of American Captives too.
2007-12-12 06:07:05 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 3⤋
because we have the power to call it whatever we want even if it is torture who will judge the judge
2007-12-12 06:09:00 · answer #11 · answered by moe 3 · 1⤊ 2⤋