Quote:
Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
Your faith that torture works is disturbing, not least because the conversation started with a quote from a retired Admiral who said otherwise -- he's the guy you called an egghead. You offer a realistic pragmatism that is utterly impervious to contrary evidence. Why do you think torture works? Because we need to do it. Why do we need to do it? Because it works.
All this talk about how it "works" is, among other things, incredibly short-sighted. You're not going to win the so-called war with Islamofascism by torturing suspected terrorists until they rat out their cohorts. It's a war for hearts and minds, and when you start torturing people, you surrender this country's biggest advantage, the notion that we actually stand for something other than sucking as many petrochemicals into our SUVs for as little as possible.
What you say about McCain is just sad.
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You're clearly undebatable on this issue. Any suggestion torture works is automatically discounted despite the clear reality that for thousands of years people have used it. Has it always been a failure? Is that your suggestion? Thousands of years of regimes torturing people has never elicted useful information becuase some admiral says it doesn't work?
I am trying to be open minded and accept your view as the best way to start interrogations, but you are being absurd and absolutist here. Yes, torture does work in some circumstances, and I would use it as a last resort.
And you've totally warped the logical steps I used to reach that simple conclusion. You either do that because you know your argument is a silly absolutist solution to an issue which is clearly one of degrees or you're simply so high on self-righteousness and the reinforcement you get from reading left-leaning materials on the matter that compromise on this issue seems offensive.
That would be sad.
"Hearts and minds"? I agree with winning hearts and minds. But what if that doesn't work? What if the zealot progamming is too deply entrenched for the "soft interrogation" angle? What shall we do then? Are you foolish enough to suggest your "feel good" approach works 100% of the time?
Back up and put your emotion and political leaning aside.
