Torture is always wrong. But I do not consider it torture to withhold sleep or food for short periods, to administer drugs, to disorient through loud music or short extremes of heat or cold. That is just making the terrorist subjects uncomfortable and less likely to hold to a false story. That is not torture.
I also have no problem with a warm cup of coffee and a kind word, if it gets us the information we need.
All of these methods are a long way from beatings, electrocution, etc that is real torture and is practiced with alarming regularity across the world.
The problem is that no one has the guts to sit down and write out exactly what can and cannot be done. Based on the articles (leaks) I've seen in the press, it seems like our military and intel services are simply left on their own, with everyone fervently hoping that no one will do anything embarrassing.
That would be incorrect. The Army Field Manual regarding interrogation is quite specific.
Perhaps what you meant to say is that the 97 idiots in the senate voting for this bill did not have the guts to get specific because they were only seeking some cheap glory?
As for whether or not torture is always wrong, I would disagree. I can envision instances where torture would be the by far the lesser of two evils and thus not wrong in very specific cases. If our august senate had a minimal amount of testosterone, they would have addressed the specifics and the rare instances when "torture", or more realistically methods outside those described in the Army Field Manual short of pulling out limbs one at a time, would be justified and installed a system to determine that.
Great post. That's right on. That's what I said in my 107 and 114 posts. They're right on the edge, but not going over, and NOT torture.
Yes, that is torture. If you think any of those things are okay, than you're out of step with the legal definitions of torture that we work under. A military interrogator caught using any of those above techniques could be court martialed and imprisoned.
Unless you were teaching survival training for U.S. service members. Then, you'd be okay. (Except for the drugs part. That still wouldn't fly.)