U.S. Accused of Torture

[Scott]

link (http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/us-accused-of-torture/2007/10/30/1193618879492.html)

hate to say I told you so. But this shouldn't be surprising seeing as how in the 40's they gave a Japanese man 12(?) years for waterboarding an American citizen.
We called it torture back then, still is.

[Toxic]

Well, that would depend on what your definition of torture is. Not failing an organ or causing death, pffftt that just harsh interrogation.

Seriously though, we need to treat others how we expect to be treated. Golden rule is there, we should be following it.

[Mr Cool]

Why the surprise?

Pretty much all states have either used or would use torture if absolutely neccessary, particularly in matters of national security. It's a neccessary evil.

The difference between a so-called civilised and uncivilised society isn't whether it uses torture or not but whether it admits and accepts it's use as a matter of business as usual and does it publicly. Purely in this regard I believe that the US is acting apropriately by publicly denouncing and denying the use of torture whilst using it behind closed doors when it has to. It's about the only realistic compromise.

Of course there is the question of whether any such torture is either absolutely neccessary or appropriately used and that may well be debatable. However I think most people realise that in extreme circumstances it can possibly have it's place but that we'd rather not know about it. The mistake is in getting caught and letting it's use become public knowledge and that most likely occurs when it's being used either too often or inappropriately.

It's quite possible and highly likely that the appropriate use of torture ( ie used on genuinely confirmed terrorists) has saved many innocent lives in the past, however in a society that denounces torture it's impossible to refer to these cases and show the benefits. Therefore we just have to endure the situation of mock indignation and denial whenever a case comes to light. It's called playing the game and as distasteful as it may be is one where the benefits probably outweigh the downsides.

[DeadCell]

Torture is wrong. Not only that but its been proven ineffective at gaining information either in the long term or short.