Stooping to torture won't conquer terror

This week, CIA Director Michael V. Hayden publicly admitted that the agency has used waterboarding as an interrogation technique .

[Bob]

If it save's lives by getting information..its not like were cutting off there heads with a butter knife..most of the world still does..this is a very dangerous world..its time to take off the glove's and start nucking !!!

[Gus Smegma]

Someone always has to be the top dog.

If not us, who would the critics recommend instead??????

[PJW]

Torture does not stop or deter terrorism, it encourages it. The growth in terrorist recruitment is a direct consequence of US actions. That recruitment will have devastating consequences for the US when the youngest of recruits gets old enough to attack Americans.

When those in authority respond to fear and ignore moral princiiples to guide and set policy we end up with an authoritative government lacking principles that ignores justice and tramples on human rights.

For those who turn their backs and think "so what?" just remember Germany. The term Nazi was not restricted to just Hitler's party, it was a term and label placed upon every German during and after WWII. What Bush has done has hurt more than just the Republican Party, it has made every US citizen guilty by association.

Those who hate America because of what has been done in our name are going to view every American as though we are no different than George Bush. So long as the American public and Congress does nothing and demands no accountability, this stain and view of Americas that Bush has brought upon us all will not go away.

I never heard of anyone who quite hating an enemy that embraced torture and violation of human rights as their weapons of choice. So long as the hatred remains, the war will not end.

[Mike Brown]

PJW,
I suppose that when these "victims" in the Middle East behead innocent civilians it must make U.S. citizens want to become terrorists. I does by your logic.

I doubt that these barbarians that call themselves followers of Islam use any form of torture as mild as water boarding. Of course people like you are always ready to excuse or deny their actions. For you it's blame America first. If our government has to beat the Hell out of these zealots to prevent another atrocity like 9-11 I say God speed to them. I suppose you would accept the next attack and find a way to blame the U.S. Pathetic!

[kdogg36]

Mike Brown - I don't blame the US government for terrorism; I blame the terrorists. But it's clear to me that all the nest-poking is not making me safer from terrorists -- quite the contrary.

[V Racer]

3 out of 5 prior comments being on target isn't bad. "Nest-poking?" Does that mean, don't gather intelligence? PJW, Bush freed millions in Afghanistan and Iraq. What's this ignorant Nazi, liberal biased BS?

[Sasha Cedusky]

I would like to urge everyone to read an article written by Michael Levin (Ph.D., Columbia University),a professor of philosophy at City University of New York, titled "A case for torture".
I will give you a quote from his article. He wrote "There is little danger that the Western democracies will lose their way if they choose to inflict pain as one way of preserving order. Paralysis in the face of evil is the greater danger."
We are not like our enemies. We would not strap a bomb to 2 handicapped women and blow them up for our cause.
Michael Levin wrote, "Suppose a terrorist group kidnapped a newborn baby from a hospital. I asked four mothers if they would approve of torturing kidnappers if that were necessary to get their own newborns back. All said yes, the most "liberal" adding that she would like to administer it herself.

I am not advocating torture as punishment. Punishment is addressed to deeds irrevocably past. Rather, I am advocating torture as an acceptable measure for preventing future evils. So understood, it is far less objectionable than many extant punishments. Opponents of the death penalty, for example, are forever insisting that executing a murderer will not bring back his victim (as if the purpose of capital punishment were supposed to be resurrection, not deterrence or retribution). But torture, in the cases described, is intended not to bring anyone back but to keep innocents from being dispatched. The most powerful argument against using torture as a punishment or to secure confessions is that such practices disregard the rights of the individual. Well, if the individual is all that important, and he is, it is correspondingly important to protect the rights of individuals threatened by terrorists. If life is so valuable that it must never be taken, the lives of the innocents must be saved even at the price of hurting the one who endangers them."
I am thankful for living in a country that wants to protect its citizens. Thank you, and God Bless America!

[dduuuuhhhh]

I much rather torture them, prevent the next 9/11from happening and then kill the scum when done.

[mike-nottingham]

I just wonder what make believe world PJW and the two letter to the editor writers live in? We are at war with fanatics who want to destroy us and the State of Israel and will stop at nothing to accomplish that result. According to the letter writers we are not supposed to take any proactive measures to stop another 911 attack. We are just supposed to sit back let it happen again and then bring the perpetrators to justice, after we bury thousands more Americans. We are not stooping to their level by taking actions to defend ourselves. That would seem to be self evident except to these naive suicidal people. The terrorists attacked us on 9-11 BEFORE we invaded Iraq and BEFORE anyone was waterboarded. So the argument that waterboarding puts us at more rather than less danger is bogus. What is especially galling is that many of the bleeding hearts against waterboarding are also against the Patriot Act and the NSA intercepts even though these programs have worked in preventing another attack after six and a half years. They are against any actions that have kept us safe from another attack all in the name of political correctness. If you folks want to commit suicide but some sleeping pills or a gun but don't try to take the rest of us with you.

[Vivek Golikeri]

I attended City College of New York for three years. Professor Michael Levin is a virulent racist openly promulgating Nazi-style racial theories accusing blacks of being genetically inferior. To hear a Jew talking like a Nazi is so shocking and obscene. If anyone wants to quote him to buttress a point, they might

CUNY authorities ignored protests, hiding behind the excuse of "academic freedom." Yet when Leonard Jeffries made a public speech about an alleged Jewish conspiracy, the whole power structure attempted to remove him.

The higher education system is corrupt and two-faced. Where were all these self-annointed custodians of social good during Levin's career of sleaze?