Quote:
Originally Posted by MMM
You are asking if there are lasting psychological repercussions from waterboarding torture?
This is part of the agreement Americans who have been subjected to waterboarding sign:
“ ‘Waterboarding’ is a potentially dangerous activity in which the participant can receive serious and permanent (physical, emotional and psychological) injuries and even death, including injuries and death due to the respiratory and neurological systems of the body.”
An even more important point to consider is that torture is rarely an effective way to get information from a prisoner. Generally they tell nothing, or say whatever it takes to get the torture to stop.
In general, torture is not an interrogation device, but a terrorism device. "Look what we will do to your citizens if we capture them".
You know what the best way to get information from German Nazis in WWII was? Chess. Interrogators would play chess with captured prisoners, develop a relationship, and eventually they would start talking.
The idea that torture leads to reliable information is a delusion.
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Yes, they played chess with them, and that worked when they had weeks or months to get information about weapons technology or the locations of sensitive targets. The types of information sought nowadays is of a time sensitive nature, and you aren't going to "befriend" a terrorist, learn what he knows, and take action if that action is going to occur in a matter of days, if not hours.
And, we must not forget that the Nazis, for all their faults, were European Christians for the most part, and were nothing like the ideological religious fundamentalists we face today.
Why is torture used? Is it used just because interrogators are sadistic fiends who had unhappy childhoods and went to work for the CIA as an emotional outlet?
The idea that torture doesn't lead to information is patently false. The catchword here is "reliable", but when trying to get intelligence there is no such thing as useless information. Every fact, no matter how minor, or what the context, is a piece to a larger puzzle, and potentially the key piece.
Once again, if a terrorist were caught on his way to blow up your neighborhood, or the train or plane that you (or one of your family members) had a ticket to be on, would you still think torture was unjustified?
It's far to easy for those of us who live in an insulated world to say that we oppose things like torture. We can criticize, theorize, or justify any view we like because we have never had to come face to face with the uglier side of humanity.