Thoughts on torture

Should we torture? Maybe only terrorists? Enemy combatants? What exactly is torture? Scary dogs? Panties on heads? Bacon jackets?

Frankly, I am not bothered by torture. I really don't care. Now I've said it. It is out in the open. All these people at Guantanamo Bay, any terrorist type we capture, if we think they have info on future terror attacks, I say torture them. I don't even care how we do it. Water boarding, Brittney Spears music, scary dogs, panties, even chopping off fingers. I don't care.

In today's news, it seems like torture happens all the time. This article says different. It is from National Review Online and is by Jonah Goldberg.

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MjM2ZDRlOWY4OTdjMWFiNjZlYWUwZmNiYjRjNGQwZDM

The mainstream media portrays our military as a bunch of sadists, just waiting for the chance to inflict pain on anyone at any time. The truth is – the military is us. They are regular people. Most Americans are either in the military or are related by friendship or blood to someone in the military. They are not faceless beasts. They are us, we are them.

Here in America, as citizens, we are protected by our laws. The constitution gives us rights pertaining to interrogation and punishment. I think we are wrong to assume that these terrorists are covered by the same rights. They are not simple criminals. We must not treat them as such.

During the cold war, we saw the Soviet Union as a mysterious brooding evil. But in retrospect, they were the same as us. They had families, friends, children, hopes and dreams just like we did. They had stuff to lose in a war, just like we did. This new enemy, stateless terrorism, is different. They place no value on human life. In a recent suicide (homicide) bombing, the bombers were two Down Syndrome girls. What kind of - I hate to call them people - would do such a thing. Where is their love for life? The fact is it doesn’t exist. They place no value on their present existence, but look only toward death and the ultimate reward. The sooner death happens, the sooner the reward is received. They are so oppressed and abused by their political and religious leaders, the death/reward thing looks better and better each day.

As the world’s culture continues to deteriorate into a boiling pot of violence, we do not have the luxury of hiding our head in the sand as if evil does not exist. It does, and it does not follow the rules. It won’t go away, it must be beaten back. We must stand against it. Rhetoric won’t work; neither will the liberal idea of “acceptance and understanding”. It doesn’t respect human life or dignity; and when we come against it, neither should we. I know there are lots of treaties and court decisions that disagree with me, but court decisions can be overturned, and treaties can be broken. The Europeans will scream and yell. The Russians will scream and yell. So will the Canadians. So be it. I believe that in the back of their minds, maybe when they are alone in the dark, they are secretly cheering us on.

Our government’s primary responsibility is to keep us safe, not pacify the spaghetti-spined, cowering-in-fear types that populate the rest of the world.