OT: TORTURE???

IS "WATERBOARDING" TORTURE???  YES OR NO

And should the United States be involved in such a practice???

I will admit that I had to look it up...

I'm going to use the McCain () response:  I do not know enough about the subject to make a comment. 

LOL...

Actually McCain is one of the few big Republicans who's come out and said tha****erboarding was torture...and that the US shouldn't be doing it.

(I was just hearing on the news yesterday another Republican say, "We shouldn't listen to McCain's opinion because he was a POW and was waterboarded...so his prospective is twisted"...???...)

Historically it has been used by such wonderful citizens of humanity (sarcasm) as the Japanese during WWII, Nazis, and the Khmer Rouge during their systematic mass genocide of Cambodian citizens.  If we want to present ourselves to the world as a civilized, democratic nation than we should not be using torture methods. 

IS "WATERBOARDING" TORTURE???  YES

And should the United States be involved in such a practice???

I don't know, Birdman.  Part of me feels like we should use it but not advertise that we use it, and the other part of me feels like if everyone knows that we did in the past, they are not going to believe that we don't do it now.

Yes Waterboarding is torture.  I think torture should be used to secure information only if it has proven effective.  Many reports say the torture of prisoners does not prove effective in securing helpful information. so I'm not sure if it should be used. 

HOWEVER if it is effective and it keeps the United States safe I think it should be used. Many of the terrorist of today are so crazy and fanatical in their belief systems I doubt torture would be effective.  We are talking about people willing to strap bombs on their own body to blow up their target.  I doubt seriously that torture would prove effective on people willing to DIE for their cause....

I had to google to find out what it was exactly. 

I guess it would seem to be torture, but on the other hand, don't other countries do worse things than that?  Obviously I have no idea what the heck they do, but that just doesn't seem like the worse one could do...I'm just saying... 

...and no...I don't want to try it out to see how torturous it actually is!

yes it's torture and no it shouldn't  (for the same reason you don't yell at the kids to tell them to stop making noise) cuz 2 wrongs might feel good but they never make a right. 

Simply...Yes it is.  I'm undecided on whether or not it should be a practice we employ.  On one hand I have to think if this action against one person could have prevented 9-11, then it is worth it.  But on the other hand I worry where do we stop?  Who makes the decision that it should be reserved for only the worst terrorists out there? 

Yeah it is, that is why Condoleezza played it off when they asked her about it.
Should we use it...I don't know. Terrorists are getting pretty hardcore these days. Like another poster said, if it can help us out, maybe we should and just keep it under wraps.