Denver Area Citizens for Liberty
Liberty through education
What Zimmer thinks about Torture
I don’t think one should allow others to be tortured unless one is himself/herself willing to be tortured.
The government says that it only used “enhanced interrogation techniques” on terrorists. The question is: how do we know (and for that matter, how does the government know) that that person was a terrorist?
You should not have to worry about being tortured because the government made a mistake and thought you were a terrorist. You should not have to worry about being tortured because the government changed the definition of terrorist to include actions which you thought were guaranteed by the Constitution (such as freedom of speech, religion and assembly).
The government and its apologists claim that terrorist attacks were prevented because they used torture to gain information. Personally, I doubt it – I think that if their morals are of a level that they will use torture that they cannot be trusted to tell the truth.
I also believe that a free society is susceptible to being attacked by actual terrorists and that we cannot give up our freedom to gain security from attack because at that point we are not longer a free society. However, as a free society we should not be doing things (such as we are currently doing around the globe) which provoke other individuals and groups to hate us and desire to attack us.
After World War II we correctly labeled water-boarding as a crime and hung those Japanese soldiers who used it on our troops. That we have now been debating whether or not water-boarding and other similar activities are even a crime shows how far we have fallen as a people and as a nation.
Those individuals who engaged in, condoned, allowed or ordered people to be tortured should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law no matter what their rank in the military or government may be whether high or low.
The government says that it only used “enhanced interrogation techniques” on terrorists. The question is: how do we know (and for that matter, how does the government know) that that person was a terrorist?
You should not have to worry about being tortured because the government made a mistake and thought you were a terrorist. You should not have to worry about being tortured because the government changed the definition of terrorist to include actions which you thought were guaranteed by the Constitution (such as freedom of speech, religion and assembly).
The government and its apologists claim that terrorist attacks were prevented because they used torture to gain information. Personally, I doubt it – I think that if their morals are of a level that they will use torture that they cannot be trusted to tell the truth.
I also believe that a free society is susceptible to being attacked by actual terrorists and that we cannot give up our freedom to gain security from attack because at that point we are not longer a free society. However, as a free society we should not be doing things (such as we are currently doing around the globe) which provoke other individuals and groups to hate us and desire to attack us.
After World War II we correctly labeled water-boarding as a crime and hung those Japanese soldiers who used it on our troops. That we have now been debating whether or not water-boarding and other similar activities are even a crime shows how far we have fallen as a people and as a nation.
Those individuals who engaged in, condoned, allowed or ordered people to be tortured should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law no matter what their rank in the military or government may be whether high or low.
Comment
About
© 2009 Created by Charlie Parker on Ning. Create a Ning Network!
You need to be a member of Denver Area Citizens for Liberty to add comments!
Join this Ning Network