Furthermore, by stating that these "enhanced interrogation techniques" are acceptable ways of treating detainees, the U.S. government has indicated, however unintentionally, that these techniques are acceptable for other, potentially hostile, countries to use on American detainees. (There are a couple of American journalists being held in North Korea, for example, that are in an extremely dicey situation because of this.) It's The Golden Rule in action.

I can't imagine anyone is sleeping easier because of this.

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That's basically like someone saying "now, I don't want to offend you but you're ugly. NO OFFENCE. I'M NOT TRYING TO OFFEND. YOU CAN'T BE OFFENDED."

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I was forming an uninformed opinion that water boarding, walling, etc. was not a form of torture. It would seem that at different times our government and other world organizations have considered it torture and it probably should be labeled as such. I also realize (and always have) that legal is not the same as right. Most of what the Nazi's did was legal by German law in that they had lawyers changing the laws to whatever was convenient.

Here's where I depart with what most of the people wrote to me. No one that comments on here knows what type of information was obtained from the enhanced interrogation. A lot of people think they know, but those documents are still classified. We may have been on a slippery slope, but we didn't slide down into villainy. At least not the people who were following the legalized guidelines. Abu Ghraib = Villains. Gitmo = non-Villains. The hyping of the enhanced interrogation techniques by NYT et al was sensationalistic and misleading. The constant use of the word "brutal" and convenient omission of adjectives like "flexible" (when referring to the walling patricians) were obvious attempts to stoke the outrage.

So, I agree on some points and not on others. To be honest, because I have reservations, I am just as glad now that we ended the program. However, that feeling might be changed if I find out that the interrogations saved even one innocent life.

Now, i will continue this debate on any of the other two threads that we have been battling on, but I am not posting anything else on this one. So either list some classic rock song that you would hear at a carnival or shut up, you pompous douche bag.

ACDC and Ozzy are still open. Feel free to use one of those. I won't tell anyone that I helped.

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