Torture, Do the Ends Justify the Means?

[rwoehmke]

Ani Ibi, thanks for the instruction on posting a link. I think going back to the past when heritics in both camps were burned was not the point of my question/thread. I was more interested in our modern times when some seem to be tolerant of the idea that torturing an alleged terrorist is necessary policy for our government.

 

[catsrus]

Torture is always wrong, period!
It has always been wrong and will always be wrong.
To torture is to erode the human conscience, a slippery slide downhill. One bad act leads to another and to another…
Nazi Germany 1933 - 1945 is a case in point.

 

[wabrams]

wcknight:

The most recent case is this girl who disappeared in Aruba.

It is possible that someone will get convicted of her kidnapping, and not have to disclose what really happened to her.

I believe Halloway is long since dead. I doubt they’re going to be able to bring the two boys and their father to trial. Even if they do go to trial and get convicted, giving up the body will probably get them a lighter sentence.

I

wcknight:

've heard of other cases (not recently) where someone was convicted of a murder and the body was never found, and the murderer was not forced or cooperative in the search. One such case was in our area, where a women was killed in her house, the body taken elsewhere and never found. A vagrant was convicted of the crime, and he never disclosed what he did with the body.

If you throw the book at someone for murder or they are too stubborn to cooperate, what is their motive to help or how to entice them to tell you?

 

[gksaoh]

The struggle to close the School of the Americas has relevance beyond Latin America. The Bush administration is fighting terrorism using the same tactics as our enemies. This includes use of torture on prisoners of war. They claim that the Geneva Convention on torture is naive and outdated.

Senator John McClain was a prisoner in Viet Nam and is disturbed with this contempt for international law. He proposed an amendment to the Defense Department appropriation to forbid this practice. It passed 90 to 9. The president threatens to veto the bill.

It seems ironic that an administration that prides itself on its stand against such matters of private conduct as same sex marriage can practice “anything goes” as public policy.