Sorry for continued ranting. but this is worth noting in the discussion of the USA and Human Rights.
http://www.usaid.gov/about/usaid_faq.html
"The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent agency that provides economic, development and humanitarian assistance around the world in support of the foreign policy goals of the United States."
note:
"humanitarian assistance around the world in support of the foreign policy goals of the United States."
Human rights in the world... only matter when its in our interest. so if you are wrongly imprisoned, tortured, dying, starving or need medicine, just be careful that you are on the right side of the border... you know, "the good side"
so i would say this about torture. (depending on how it is defined) it would not be unusual to torture him. we do it right now. not directly, they just ship them to Saudi Arabia, Turkey and other places where the locals are more than happy to use more pursuasive and traditional means to extract information.
doing so, does not make us any more or less hypocrtitical. its been done since the dawn of time and it can be safely argued that it happens less in the year 2003 than it did in 1503 (without even having to adjust for population growth).
"torture" is just a buzzword that is used to cause an emotional reaction. there is a big difference between "reaction" and "response". The first question MUST be... "what is torture" or you cannot debate it. people hear the word "torture" and their mind is filled with images of the Spanish Inquisition and seemingly do not realize that forcing someone to stand for a prolonged period of time is also "torture" People would say that sleep deprivation is ok, but pulling out fingernails with pliars is not. i would say that as well but BOTH are torture according to the UN.
after reflecting on a wide range of issues, i would say if asked "should he be tortured?" i would answer simply this - "officially no. unofficially yes"
Last edited by JR at Mar 8 2003, 12:16 AM