Torture and Interrogation

[blike]

That sucks. After about five minutes of that, they could have my firstborn if they want.

[Glider]

Yeah, it's a bugger ain't it? The Army tends to use that one (among others) as a 'training aid' for anyone who screws up. It usually involves holding your rifle or a drill shell out at arms length too, which doesn't seem to make it any better.

[Skye]

And yet add nightclub music and someone in lycra yelling 'feel the burrrrrrn' and people will pay twenty bucks an hour for it.

[jgerlica]

Inhumane maybe, but not torture. Read The Gulag Archipellago , and that my friend is torture. I am in no way condoning the MP's actions. In fact I detest MP to no end. However I do feel that this situation has been blown out of proportion.

[matter]

I would like someone to watch the videos I have seen of the torture inflicted under Sadam and also view the Abu Ghraib videos/pictures and compare them. If you want linkage to the videos just ask me.

[budullewraagh]

are you trying to justify the iraq war?

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

I already think it's justifiable, but that's different.

 

He's saying that the Abu Garaib thing was definitely not as bad as what Saddam did.

[matter]

I'm just talking about torture really. I'm talking about most of the worlds reaction to the pictures and video from Abu Ghraib. If you want to put Abu Ghraib into perspective you have to see video of other forms of torture. I'm not defending torture either, I just think how the world responded was really weird.

[budullewraagh]

torture is unacceptable in any situation

[matter]

I don't consider sleep deprivation torture though.

[budullewraagh]

hah, i'd like to see what would happen to you if you were awake for weeks on end

[budullewraagh]

the chinese tortured people by slowly dripping water on their heads btw

[Glider]

Inhumane maybe, but not torture. Read The Gulag Archipellago[/u'] , and that my friend is torture. I am in no way condoning the MP's actions. In fact I detest MP to no end. However I do feel that this situation has been blown out of proportion.

Torture is torture, though I concede there are degrees of torture. Torture is defined as the causing of pain or suffering to punish somebody or to get them to do something, and is, by definition, inhumane. 'Inhumane' is not a degree of torture, it is an underpinning element.

 

I don't consider sleep deprivation torture though.

Clearly, you have never tried it. I'm glad of that. Torture does not have to be either brutal or violent to be effective.

[admiral_ju00]

hah, i'd like to see what would happen to you if you were awake for weeks on end

 

I can't remember the guys name or the time he did it(50's or 60's - something like that) but I do know that a guy, a radio operator devised himself a challenge to stay awake for as long as he can and at the same time being on the air the whole time.

 

I believe he only lasted about 80 hours or so w/o sleep(could be more or less, don't recall the details) but at the end he was about to go postal(he exhibited lots of psychological issues), and if he would have gone longer, he probably would have died. But I believe that Glider has already covered that aspect.

[bloodhound]

torture should never be used in integration

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

What happens if the subject has information that will save a billion lives that he won't tell you?

 

You claim it never happened

[Glider]

Then torture will cause him/her to suffer, but it won't necessarily make them tell you the truth, and if they did, would you recognise it?

[Aardvark]

It's an interesting moral choice.

 

Would inflicting some pain on one person be justified if it would prevent or relieve a greater quantity of pain from another person or peoples?

 

In practice i think torture is wrong for both practical and moral reasons, but it's possible to imagine certain circumstances where the moral argument would be difficult.

 

The old saying that 'hard cases make bad law' seems to apply. Better to stick to principle and simply reject all torture as unjustifiable, even if in certain ciurcumstances arguments and justifications could be attempted.