Blog against torture day

[netmouse]

So today is the day when we're supposed to influence the world by blogging against torture. I kind of feel like when I'm asked to write to my congressman to tell him how I feel. My senator is CARL LEVIN. I don't have to tell him how I feel --he and I are AS ONE on the political spectrum and my asking him to vote on something a certain way will not change his vote because it was already going to be what I was going to ask for.

Here, I'm sure a wider group of people read this, and I don't expect us to be AS ONE, but still. You guys all get this, right? Torture is wrong and it doesn't work. Making it doubly wrong.

We have a number of documents both internal to the US and international that supposedly stand to tell us and the world that torture is something we WILL NOT DO, not to our own citizens, and not to others. We also have a president and administration who like to ignore most of the pieces of paper that have writing on them abridging their power to diddle wherever they like. But we're going to fix that, right?

Right?

Because it's WRONG.

That and it's STUPID if we want a solid basis from which to argue that OUR soldiers and ambassadors and everyday citizens should not have to fear torture in other countries. Which of course they should not. Nobody should have to fear that. It should, like, go away. Bzzt. (Imagine that Ruby Red radio guy in the Fifth Element waving his hand there. Go Away. Bzzt.)*

Are we all clear on that? Does anyone have a different opinion/perspective,etc.? Because I sure don't want to believe I'm preaching to the choir when there's actually someone who needs speaking to.

So speak up if you disagree.

* reference corrected. Thanks Matt!

Comments

[plasmonicgrid.livejournal.com]

Are we talking "waterboarding" as a form of torture, or something that's really torture like?

[netmouse.livejournal.com]

Is waterboarding that thing where you pour water steadily down someone's throat until they're forced to inhale water and they feel like they're going to drown and you could drown them if you felt like it but you probably won't?

How do you define "really torture like"?

[plasmonicgrid.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's waterboarding. It sucks to be on the receiving end. But, when it comes down to it.. I'd take a a couple weeks of that over 10 mins of some of this shit: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/0524072torture1.html

I'm under the understanding that torture based information gathering doesn't guarantee reliable information. I'd admit to just about anything to make the gentleman on the other end of that blowtorch believe me. Why, with enough patiences and attention to detail, I bet he could get me to admit that I was his lover for 10years, and that I needed to apologize for breaking up with him.

I've found that I'm more of a fan of pharmaceutic based interrogation. You restrain the prisoner, shoot them with a cocktail of drugs.. All of a sudden, he thinks I'm god standing in front of him, and all he wants to do is tell me about anything I want to know about. Not much in the way of physical damage will occur.. and no where the amount of psychological trauma to the prisoner, or to the one doing the torturing (which I haven't heard that much about).

However, If we get to the point where we no longer use torture at all, we'll move to those drugs. Not so bad then? If it works that well with prisoners of war, what's to stop them from deciding to start implementing that on the populous? (yeah yeah.. men in black breaking in and kidnapping innocents, and other conspiracy stuff)

I'm not terribly thrilled at waterboarding, and remarkably less so with other forms of torture. But I'm a bit scared of where some of the alternatives could lead.

[plasmonicgrid.livejournal.com]

I don't have a better suggestion, aside from everyone being nice to each other for a change.