Is Torture Ever Moral?
by Pat Buchanan
After opening the door to a truth commission to investigate torture by the CIA of al-Qaida subjects, and leaving the door open to prosecution of higher-ups, President Obama walked the cat back.
He is now opposed to a truth commission. That means it is dead. He is no longer interested in prosecutions. That means no independent counsel — for now.
Sen. Harry Reid does not want any new "commissions, boards, tribunals, until we find out what the facts are." Thus, ther ...
( Back to Article )
Join the Discussion
|
4 Comments | Post Comment
|
Posted by: gary
Comment: #1
Fri May 1, 2009 7:51 AM
Sweeny, you have got to be one of the biggest dipsticks to put a comment on these pages. Do you not realize that ending a persons life before it is time for it to be naturally over is a bigger crime than torture to save many more lives? Or do you think that if you kill many, many people that it is just time for them to die? Do you think shooting someone in the knee to get them to talk is better than water boarding? Maybe you think that cutting a couple of prisoners heads off would be a better way to get the rest of them to talk. Or are you just a selfritious jerk who likes to see his name in print?
|
Posted by: James A, Sweeney
Comment: #2
Tue Apr 28, 2009 11:46 AM
Sir;...Your comparison of torture with war frames the question entirely wrongly... I do not want to advertize for war or any kind of murder, but torture is worse of a crime... And you cannot justify a worse crime with a lesser crime...Think of the ten million prisoners killed by the Nazis...Which was to worse crime: to march people into gas chambers, or shoot them; or was it to enslave, torture, or brutalize them by way of killing them??? We all die, and the manor and circumstances do not matter all that much considering the result... But we all only have one life, and cannot reasonably expect another, and very often that life is not much but struggle and strife; and yet, because it is all we have, for one of us to make another's life a burden, and make them curse their lives, and regret every second of it because it has led to such pain, is a crime against humanity, and is far worse than murder....Life is gold, and to take that gold is expected... Life eats life from the smallest to the largest organism... But to turn that gold of life into lead, and make one wish away what they should hold most dear is a crime worse than all others... Only a sadist or an employer would do such evil... Most of us trade our lives for our lives...If we are forced to give cheap what we should hold dear, that too, is a crime... But the crime that makes the crime of torture politically possible is the fact that all people, to enjoy the ideal of capital, as an ideal, if not a reality, in fact live miserable lives that they universally wish away with every opportunity, and every fibre of their being... For such people, an ant under a magnified sun is to be envied, for his pain and life is short... Would they torture the poor Muslim??? They regret not being able to torture him themselves, and they admire those who can... Their own suffering gives them no sympathy, no understanding, and no concern because if they allowed themselves sympathy for others, they know they would recoil from their own pain as though from red hot iron... We could easily look around at this blessed land and ask why the inhabitants are so mean... I trust the goodness is sucked out of their lives by those who never will have enough... Maybe this land made of shiftless criminals and nobodies from distant lands never did have any essential goodness to lose, and instead, those people came here to give their corruption full freedom... But I see even the natural goodness of children squeezed out them to make the ideal ideal for a few, and a simple torture to all the rest... So, do not try to justify the conscious infliction of horror upon the human form... The human condition is such that we cannot escape pain to have sensitivity, and struggle as we may to achieve peace and understanding with others, we know some will spoil all for their own benefit...But we should be aware, that we are not moral as much as we rest upon our morals, and that the meaness we suffer in our lives we are inclined to communicate to the world, and our proclivity to torture says much about us that we cannot deny with our hands on the Bible...It is our crime come alive out of our own souls revealing our true nature as a people: Mean, Cruel, and Incontinent... It is wonderful to have a few ideals if they are put in perspective, but when people cannot see the abscess of consequences for the glory of their ideals they are living with madness... Thanks...Sweeney
|
Posted by: Ali Mogharabi
Comment: #3
Tue Apr 28, 2009 3:41 PM
Mr. Buchanan - you missed one important point ... torture, no matter if its moral, a necessity or anything else, doesn't really have a high return rate. And why would it? Actually that was demonstrated in one of the movies that you mentioned. Many prisoners that get tortured just say anything to stop the torture. The ones that won't respond or will stand torture pain for a long time ... well, they will likely continue to do so ... or basically die before they say a word. That's why info generated from tortured prisoners can't really be trusted. And I think you touched on it ... after the torture and if the prisoner provides any info, the prisoner's HATE for us, for the 'west', get multiplied by 1000000. You let him go, and you've got just another 'sales rep' for the BinLaden 'terrorist corporation.' You've got one more angry and further anti-west guy that will breed the next generation anti-west terrorists. Tough to come up with a solution or even halfway regarding this issue ... but when analyzing it, the things I mentioned must be heavily weighed.
|
Posted by: James A, Sweeney
Comment: #4
Tue Apr 28, 2009 6:24 PM
Re: Ali Mogharabi;..Sir, You miss the point of torture... First of all, it is designed to feed the sadistic nature of a frustrated and cruel people, and it is meant as a direct attack on a honor society which will prolong the conflict without end...If those people could trust their health and welfare to our government they might all surrender... We don't want them to surrender... We want them to fight so we can kill them...It is not about victory, but it is about justifying endless war... We do not understand those people... We mix like oil and water... It is possible that if we were allowed to understand them we might accept their religion and their rational... So long as we have the barrior of torture between us, and as long as we so willingly demonstrate our inhumanity we will not be able to have peace with those people because we have no honor, and cannot be trusted...I see that no relationship is possible without trust... Torture is the end of trust... We may as well kill them as torture them... They will sooner forgive us for death than an assault on their honor...Thanks...Sweeney
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
- 
- 
- 
