Waterboarding...

[BigBear]

I'm guessing if you had it done to you, you would feel differently. Probably, but I know I wouldn't die... so it'd be a mind game. And if I did happen to die, no harm, no foul, my soul is secured.

Because that guy they sent to be a suicide bomber would have been filled in on the details of their next operation. Suicide bomber probably knows nothing, but since he was willing to die before we captured him, I'd be glad to arrange the meeting between him and his Maker.

Double standards are a good way to make lots of people hate us. I totally agree. I think we should behead the terrorists we capture too instead of giving them rights.


Are we still going to be paying a price 50 years from now? Probably... but I'm all for bringing our troops home and telling the rest of the world to #&^& off. I don't mind helping out teh allies every now and then though.

H. T.

[jake]

If I captured several "terrorists" or just plain enemy combantants. I put them all in the same room and line them up. Ask one a question. He doesn't answer, blow his head off. Go down the line.

The problem with that idea is that if the second guy in line doesn't know the answer to your question, but doesn't want to die, he will tell you what he thinks you want to hear. And as YOU don't know the answer to your question either, you might just believe it.

[BigBear]

That why you don't believe anything they say and just kill them all... They are being killed for their previous actions, not for what knowledge they may or may not posess. If they want to talk, the "suits" will still check it out, but no promises made on that information.

[Mtn.man]

Waterboarding seems to be a viable and effective way of getting information from our enemies.

[jake]

So does anything go if you're trying to get vital information, or do you just want enemy combatants summarily executed? You seem to have shifted your entire argument in the space of a couple of hours.

[BigBear]

How have I shifted anything?

Anything goes when trying to get information. When they served their purpose, kill them.

[Mtn.man]

KEMALL and Let The Great spirit sort em out.

[Hoosier]

So, the entire "moral highground" concept goes out the door. Terrorists can justify terrorism, since anything goes?

Some percentage of the people picked up will be innocent. Should they be murdered as well?

There is a moral difference between combat on the battlefield, and putting a bullet in the head of someone who isn't posing you a risk. Kept alive in solitary at ADX Florence they may have a change of heart and decide to help us, even 10 years later we could gain insight into the mindset that is our real enemy. At worst, they hold their beliefs until the day they die, unable to communicate with others.

I mean, I can understand saying what you're saying when you're pissed off because they just dropped some of our buildings. In the rational light of day, with reasoning and logic, I don't see how to defend your position.

H.

[jake]

How have I shifted anything?

Anything goes when trying to get information. When they served their purpose, kill them.

Yeah, that was the gist of your first post, but in your second post you said "They are being killed for their previous actions, not for what knowledge they may or may not posess."

Either way, as Hoosier said, it seems to be more of a not-so elaborate revenge fantasy than anything else.

[BigBear]

So, the entire "moral highground" concept goes out the door. Terrorists can justify terrorism, since anything goes?

Some percentage of the people picked up will be innocent. Should they be murdered as well?

There is a moral difference between combat on the battlefield, and putting a bullet in the head of someone who isn't posing you a risk.

I see your point. Terrorists do justify what they do. They believe in it and act upon it. If innocent people are picked up then they are not so innocent anymore. I TOTALLY agree with you on the moral difference between the battelfield and someone who walks in off the street confessing. On the battlefield anything goes, line em up when caught and shoot. If someone walks in off the street and confesses, etc, then yeah you can do all the holding, trying to befriend and all that crap, but they should still be killed. They may have a sincere change of heart. The guys on the battelfield though... no deal.

Maybe it is some "fantasy" as Jake so describes but that's how I think.