Torture: Thinking About the Unthinkable

Commentary Magazine ^ | July, 2004 | Andrew C. McCarthy

[sailor4321]

The mortification of Iraqi prisoners by American military personnel at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad has been discomfiting far beyond the impact of the now-infamous images. Coupled with other reports about harsh post-9/11 tactics to garner information from captured terrorists, and with ongoing investigations into deaths alleged to have occurred in connection with interrogations, Abu Ghraib and the reaction to it have forced front and center a profound national evasion: the propriety of torture.

[sailor4321]

At last, some actual thinking on the subject!

[thoughtomator]

What's so unthinkable? Take a wrench to the scrotum and squeeze until they talk. These aren't US citizens we're talking about, this is the enemy at war - we have no due process obligation towards them.

[Az. Mike]

And shoot them, when you've gotten all you can get out of them. I say take no prisoners. Once they know we mean to utterly wipe their heathenistic a**es off the face of the Earth, the sooner 'new converts' will evaporate. They think it's a game now - It's time to show them, that we're not playing.

[JOAT]

Be careful what you approve. As soon as torture is acceptable for foreign enemies it will soon become acceptable for domestic 'enemies' of the government. Under a demonRAT regime that just might be you.

[Ace]

Did anyone see the recent program on the History Channel titled "Nazi Guerillas (June 28, 2004)? The Nazis used the same strategy and tactics versus the Allied Forces and their own German people whom they called collaborators for 2 to 3 years after the end of WW II as the Baathists and terrorists have been using for the past year in Iraq. The main factor in curtailing these terrorist attacks was when the German people who were tired of the war stood up and said "No more killing and maiming, period!" Yesterday, it was reported that this rejection of the terrorists in Iraq occurred. Look for this criminal activity by the terrorists to decrease.

Also, covered by this TV program (1 hour) was the response of the Allies (U.S., England, Russia, and France) - it was BRUTAL! For one Russian soldier killed by a sniper in a certain villge, the Russians rounded up 200 young men from that village and shot them all! For a similar action in the French sector, the French opened up on the German town with artillery and leveled the town! So neither the French or the Russians have any business looking down their noses and condemning the U.S. and Britain for our actions in Iraq! Also, after WW II we took the same approach on interrogation techniques as has been utilized presently in dealing with Iraqi prisoners - the Nazi guerills were treated as non-combatants (the war was over so the Geneva Convention only applies to uniformed soldiers during the time of war)!

Our media has either forgotten the aftermath of WW II or has myoptic vision when reporting the activities of the terrorists in Iraq over the past year!

Ace