Re: Sickness of Iraqs rebel foreign fighters - the beheadings
[quote]You know guy, you and I have fundamental differences about how we would handle terrorist and Killers.[/quote]
Yes we do. I would handle them in a way that is commensurate with American and its ideals, you would jettison that in an attempt to protect it.
[quote]Killers who would just as easily cut your mothers neck, or yours, or your baby sisters. Or shoot children in the back who are running to their daddy's safe arms.[/quote]
Is this going somewhere?
[quote]Personally, I don't see any connection in all you have stated and overstated about the conditions as abusive or un-american. I personally do not think either one is the case. [/quote]
You wouldn't because you have already sacrificed the morals and ideals underlying America in favor of torturing and abusing detainees. If you can't see that chaining someone in a fetal position and leaving them to lie in their own excrement is antithetical to what this country stands for...well, you've already given the terrorists a moral victory.
[quote]These killers being tied up in an uncomfortable fetal position isn't close to the discomfort of positions used in the past by many truly uncaring governments and/or Kings.
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Ohhh, I see...so it's all good because we're not AS BAD as Castro or Amin or Hussein? Sorry Rob, but we're not playing moral equivalence here. We're not comparing our actions against those of others to make sure we're on the right side of the moral equation. What has been allegedly done to the prisoners is morally wrong regardless of whether someone else has, at some time, done something worse.
[quote]My feelings are very different than yours my friend. I hurt inside for the families of these guys who had their heads cut off and placed on their chest like a trophy to be displayed. [/quote]
No, actually our feelings are identical on that point because I grieve as you do for the people who's loved ones have been killed.
[quote]I don't think it too terrible for them to suffer a little by sitting in an uncomfortable position in thier shit. These people are barely human.[/quote]
If you think they are "barely human," then I don't think you would stop at allowing them to sit in their own shit. Categorizing humans as such is the first step down the road to the worst types of atrocities suffered by mankind. Just remember Rob, in their eyes, we're "barely human" too because we're infidels or non-believers...that's what allows them to do the horrible things that they do to us.
[quote]Yet in your kindness you want to worry about whats un-american. Where did you get that from anyway?[/quote]
Yes I do worry about what's un-American because whatever is done to those terrorists is done in your name and mine. The power that the government exercises is derived from us. And where did I get the idea that torture is un-American??? It is not a part of -- and has no place in -- any civilized society. A better question would be where did you get the idea that torture is -- in any way -- consistent with or supported by the ideals on which this country is founded?
[quote]Whats american is that, under the Bush admin. the dictatorships have been taken down, and people are being liberated. [/quote]
Although we can quibble about the manner of implementation, I do agree that it is the purest expression of the ideals underlying our nation to used our power as a country to liberate the Iraqi people from the thug that routinely tortured and killed them.
[quote]So they cut our necks, and you worry that they sit in shit.
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Yes I do because as soon as we say that it is ok to forget what it means to be an American or have a sincere and abiding belief in the concept of human rights, is the day that we begin to believe that it is actually ok to cut someone's neck if they are not aligned with your ideals.
[quote]Think about what they are willing to do. Go watch the videos I linked on this post to begin with, and tell me why your so concerned that they shit on themselves. [/quote]
I know very well what they are willing to -- and in fact -- do. I have seen the videos. I am concerned about prisoners being abused and tortured because it is antithetical to the ideals of America. We, as a nation, do not engage in torture or abuse because those are the tools of two-bit thugs and dictators. I am concerned about it because it is beneath us and as soon as we stop striving to live up to the ideals underlying our country is the day that we become as bad as the terrorists.
[quote]Why is that so bad?[/quote]
Because it is un-American.
[quote]Hard, yes, harsh, yes, but abusive, well maybe yes.[/quote]
You should add...morally wrong, yes.
[quote] But wrong or un-american, that is where I think your taking it to a 'touchy-kinda-feely' zone that frankly makes me want to puke.[/quote]
Yes, both wrong and un-American. There is nothing touchy-feely about demanding that our leaders and our government live up to the ideals of our country.
[quote]Watch the videos guy! [/quote]
Already seen 'em. You're giving in to anger, hatred and fear Rob. You are letting those emotions dictate the actions that you are willing to put up with and condone.
[quote]What would you do, if it were your job to take these prisoners, who used a butcher knife and slit the neck of an innocent man?
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I would not abuse or torture them. What would you do? If given the chance, would you cut their throat?
[quote]How would you make them give up some info which might save someones life? And many of the people they are killing are Iraqi, Korean, Pakistani, and others I cant remember now.[/quote]
For the fourth or fifth time, I am not an expert in interrogation, so I can't say what I would do. What I can say is that I would not abuse or torture them. That is morally wrong and un-American.
[quote]Can you imagine yourself, sawing thru someones neck, struggling to get the blade to pass thru the last inch of neck which has the backbone. [/quote]
No I cannot.
[quote]Why are you so concerned with some terrorist sitting in his shit?[/quote]
It goes beyond the shit Rob. I am concerned with the accusations of physical torture and abuse because it is morally wrong to physically abuse or torture them.
[quote]It seems more important to you that the enemy succeeds, than the innocent become free.
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Have you read anything that I have written? Where have I ever said that I am interested in the enemy succeeding? You don't seem to be listening or thinking about what I've been writing. My point throughout this debate has been that abuse and torture are tactics of our enemies and that I demand our country not lower us to that level. For you to say that it seems important to me that the enemy succeed just shows how little rational thought you have left in the face of the hatred and fear that seem to have consumed you.
[quote]Sometimes I think you have to take some issues to extreme measures.[/quote]
I agree, but there are certain lines that are not to be crossed in a civilized and free society. Physical abuse and torture is one such line.
[quote]I wonder how these guys could slice the neck of a living man, and not throw up.[/quote]
I hope that you never find out.
[quote]I wonder why you worry so much that they sit in their shit.
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Because our country (or at least my country) is better than that.
[quote]Personally, I could probably wish a little worse fate for these guys, [/quote]
That doesn't surprise me in the least. What sort of worse fate are you talking about?
[quote]So personally, I think a little humiliation is not abuse, harsh yes, but abuse no. [/quote]
I don't really have a problem with that. Flush the koran, wipe menstrual blood on them...I have no problem with that. Physical abuse and torture...that's where I draw the line.
[quote]Shit, whats so damn bad about shit. These middleeastern people shit on the side of the road in a squatty position, and wash it off with water and their hand. You ever touched shit? I don't like to get it on me, when I change my kids diaper, but I also use paper on my butt, and not my hand. So maybe shit is a little worse to you and me than it is to these guys, who knows, the point is ... we all shit. And sitting in it would not be nice, but for cutting my american brothers neck, I think a little shit sitting is not too bad.[/quote]
Try to minimize or rationalize it all you like, but the fact remains that the entirety of what was allegedly done to them -- shit and all -- constitutes physical abuse that is not what this country stands for.