rasmussenreports.com — Fifty-eight percent (58%) of U.S. voters say waterboarding and other aggressive interrogation techniques should be used to gain information from the terrorist who attempted to bomb an airliner on Christmas Day. Just 30% oppose the use of such techniques, and another 12% are not sure.
Dec 31, 2009 View in Crawl 4
anotherfaceDec 31, 2009
I've waterboarded my girlfriend three times (and have the video to prove it), while not pleasant (obviously) it is NOT torture.
hblaskJan 1, 2010
I'm assuming the racism remark was meant as a joke, although it's hard to know on Digg. So no, the fact that immoral methods have been used before without becoming widespread still does not justify immoral methods.Let me repeat: humans are born with natural rights, rights derived from the mere fact of being human, the mere fact that human life has value. These rights deserve maximum protection. To decide which course of action will maximize human rights and human safety, we look at history. Total government killings: hundreds of millions. Total criminal/terrorist/thug killings: hundreds of thousands.This one is not even close. The strictest limitations belong on those who would do the most harm.
mikeyh0Jan 1, 2010
First of all, you have no way of knowing what attacks were stopped unless, as I doubt, you work in the area of intelligence for this country. As far as signing treaties goes, we signed treaties with the Indians, too. That didn't stop us from breaking them. Pieces of paper do not stop bullets or acts of aggression. Ask Chamberlain. "How does it feel to be completely wrong on every point?" You're kidding, right? What a moron! Because YOU say it it MUST be so. Prove it. No really, I'd like to hear it. "Sympathizers to the terrorists cause"? - great perfect piece of verbal trash! Now that we have all these sympathizers what do you suggest we do with them? If we promise to be good, will they go away? It doesn't look like that to me. Obama reached out and got a slaughter at a military base and a bomber on a plane. Maybe they didn't understand how nice we are now. Heck, we even let the guys from Gitmo go and then they turn around and try to kill us. Some people just aren't very nice. But you can give them rights, let them espouse their vitriol against Christians and Jews all you want. Tell me THAT doesn't incite "sympathizers". I know that Bush let them go - please don't bore me with that drivel. Bush did exactly what Obama says he wants to do and yet when it doesn't go the way you want it to, you blame Bush yet again.
hblaskJan 2, 2010
Wow, that's one of the biggest stretches of playing the race card that I've ever seen.It's such a stretch, I will just assume at this point you are trolling, hoping I will get sucked into some ridiculous argument that can't possibly make sense to anyone.Good luck with that.
suricouJan 2, 2010
"humans are born with natural rights"Slight correction. Those rights arn't 'natural.' If they were, then they would have been recognised universally, both in location and in time. Neither is the case. Human rights are a distinctly modern invention, and therefore cannot be natural. They are, like all laws, simply constructs of ideas that have been agreed upon as desireable.
ultimisJan 4, 2010
"And for those who don't believe waterboarding is torture, go ahead and find someone to do it to you. There is not a single person who has gone through it who does not believe it is torture."1.) I would not want to be interrogated or put in jail either. What is your point? The same can be said for any discomfort.2.) I did not just try and blow up 300 innocent people. If I did, I would fully expect to be executed or interrogated if I had relevant knowledge. Fear mongering that these techniques are suddenly going to be used on random Americans is pretty incredible.3.) Waterboarding performed by the U.S. is not the same method that was used by Korea, Vietnam, Japan, etc. Please look up the differences.4.) If you're definition of "torture" is putting a enemy combatant into a high state of anxiety, please kiss our intelligence sector goodbye. 5.) There were strict guidelines for the use of water boarding.
troika37Jan 4, 2010
I've been waterboarded. It's terrifying, but not torture. Inflicting an emotional response on someone isn't torturing them. Feeding them into a woodchipper feet first is.Try again.