In my humble opinion, therein lies the shame.
I was taught by the US Army that the United States does not mistreat prisoners. Period. Uncouth individuals will do so, but it will never be policy.
Mistreatment of captives is immoral, reprehensible, and cowardly.
Now I expect the deluge of "anything is OK as long as you find out something we need to know." I stand the high ground, nevertheless.
During the Nuremberg Trials, we insisted that "orders" was no excuse for inhumane behavior. It should have remained that way.
What is mistreatment? Sleep deprivation? Psy ops?
Our government used them against David Koresh for 40 days (grinding up graves with a tank, playing the amplified sound of rabbits being skinned alive, playing “These Boots Are Made For Walking... One Of These Days These Boots Are Gonna Walk All Over You”.
They have recordings from their bugging system. They knew he was suicidal. Whether they lit the flame or drove him to it deliberately, the outcome was the same.
But the Left didn’t speak out about that. Not to the degree that they have condemned waterboarding.
Police departments use coerrcive interrogation techniques too. But I guess that’s okay since we don’t hear those being discussed as horrible either. And that’s more to obtain an “admission” for plea bargain and conviction rather than any matter dealing with interests of national security (investigations that extend beyond a single individual).
This whole thing with the enhanced interrogation techniques was to establish a line for getting information from the prisoners. It was not unduly harsh, was very controlled and not widely used. It allowed us to get useful information. It is more humane than rendition.
That, Sir, is the difference between legality and policy.
I offer as an exemplar that there are things in this world that a gentleman should avoid, but that does not make them illegal. It is up to the individual to determine what is acceptable within the law.
There is a significant difference between what the Nazis did and our use of waterboarding. The Nazis were bent on the eradication of non-Arian people. We used waterboarding to obtain information vital to the safety of people. No one died during these advanced interrogation sessions, while millions died horribly at the Nazis hands.
If some group kidnapped a member of my family and I caught one of them, you'd better believe that I would use "advanced interrogation" techniques to find my family member.
LOL! Gingus Kahn.
Very clever. Wonder why no ones else noticed John F Kerry was posting here.
Even if we did sign an agreement with Iran to treat terrorist prisoners humanely, no terrorist would say that such an agreement applied to them. They would still cut off heads. Saying that we are going to treat prisoners humanely only makes us feel good while the terrorists continue to chop heads. Kind of high cost for that tingle up the leg.