I think you struck a nerve with the Libs, Constantine. Lol
Carry on.

Whether one was willing to ignore that waterboarding has been considered a form of torture since the Spanish Inquisition appears to be a matter of whether one wanted to make excuses for a particular administration, it seems to me.

The willingness to condone torture tells me an awful lot about the ideology of a person. Such as whether or not they possess basic human qualities.

Yes, yes it is. It helps them sleep better at night, and of course diverts from Hillary's latest moronic, crazy ramblings in India which the Kay's of the world likely agree with.

Yes, yes it is. It helps them sleep better at night, and of course diverts from Hillary's latest moronic, crazy ramblings in India which the Kay's of the world likely agree with.

Trump espoused his desire to bring "back waterboarding" in one of the debates during his campaign.

Now he's named Gina Haspel as CIA director. She was in charge of the rendition site in Thailand that waterboarded a number of prisoners. According to the Intelligence Committee’s investigation, Zubaydah's treatment was particularly harsh, and was waterboarded 83 times... "at one point, he became non-responsive, with water bubbling up from his lungs. Doctors had to revive him. During his confinement, Zubaydah lost sight in his left eye."

https://www.newyorker.com/...iefs-black-site-past

The US executed Japanese soldiers for crimes that included waterboarding.

Her Senate confirmation hearing could be interesting.

If 'this torture' get legitimate info that can twart potential bombings, killings, etc then I'm all for it. If it's not effective, then we should do other tactics that are.
I wholeheartedly believe that Team Donkey has taken a stand against this practice(regardless of humanity), so the donkletts are just following as expected.

I read John McCain's autobiography in which he recounts his time in the Hanoi Hilton. I recall him saying that everybody will break under torture, it's just a matter of when. Torture has been around for as long as man has. If it wasn't somewhat effective i'm sure the practice would have faded away by now.

I read John McCain's autobiography in which he recounts his time in the Hanoi Hilton. I recall him saying that everybody will break under torture, it's just a matter of when. Torture has been around for as long as man has. If it wasn't somewhat effective i'm sure the practice would have faded away by now.

If 'this torture' get legitimate info that can twart potential bombings, killings, etc then I'm all for it. If it's not effective, then we should do other tactics that are.
I wholeheartedly believe that Team Donkey has taken a stand against this practice(regardless of humanity), so the donkletts are just following as expected.

I read John McCain's autobiography in which he recounts his time in the Hanoi Hilton. I recall him saying that everybody will break under torture, it's just a matter of when. Torture has been around for as long as man has. If it wasn't somewhat effective i'm sure the practice would have faded away by now.

To be fair, it's not Team Donkey that has taken the stance that waterboarding is torture. It's most of the civilized world. It was outlawed during Vietnam by US Generals. Teddy Roosevelt called for prevention of waterboarding. We tried Japanese soldiers for the crime of waterboarding our Soldiers during WWII. Law enforcement officers have been put in prison for waterboarding prisoners. The Director of DIA in the mid 2000's LtGen Maples described waterboarding as torture in testimony to Congress.

It's not like this is some liberal weenie fringe concept.

Initially I was OK with water boarding, but after watching Dr. Zimbardo, famous for the Stanford Prison Experiment, giving a Ted talk on how and why soldiers tortured people at Abu Gharib, I'm not sure it's a good thing for anyone. Power left unchecked can lead to the dehumanizing of prisoners which somehow changes something in the soldiers mind and allows him or her to do terrible things. Here's the talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/philip_zimbardo_on_the_psychology_of_evil

One thing is certain- there just isn’t enough arbitrary suffering anymore.

Who wouldn’t want to give government bureaucrats access to more “enhanced interrogation techniques”?

One can be against torture on moral grounds yet also acknowledge it's efficacy.

Regarding McCain, and that is who I was discussing, he signed a confession admitting to war crimes after breaking under torture.

Torture is taking a US military TA-312 phone and running the bare-wire ends from it to a captured enemy's testicles and then cranking the phone, sending an electrical charge down the wires, in order to get him to talk.

The Pakistanis torture men and women by lowering them down onto a rounded-end steel rod so that the rod slides into the rectum, and then very slowly lowering them further still, all the while telling them it's in their best interests to talk. The world is full of torture techniques employed by governments and militias and the like. Not sure that waterboarding actually constitutes "torture" in the real sense, though I agree on it being classified as "enhanced interrogation."

Whether waterboarding actually works or not is also up for debate. Some say it does and others maintain it doesn't. From what I understand, interrogators had to waterboard Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the operational planner behind the 9/11 attacks, something like 186 (or 156, I forget which) times before he finally spilled his secrets. Other detainees proven to have participated in the 9/11 planning and attack or support phases cracked after only a single session or 2 or 3 of them.

US military personnel being trained in survival, evasion, resistance and escape (SERE) are also subjected to a technique that's similar to waterboarding, by the way.

Whether waterboarding is actual torture or not appears to be a matter of one's ideology, it seems to me.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/make-believe-maverick-20081016
Some say he did provide actionable intelligence. Regardless, the son of an admiral admitting to war crimes was a propaganda victory for North Vietnam.