Did it work or didn't it?

http://articles.cnn.com/2007-11-06/politics/waterboard.poll_1_waterboarding-michael-mukasey-interrogation?_s=PMOLITICS

A majority of Americans consider waterboarding a form of torture, but some of those say it's OK for the U.S. government to use the technique, according to a poll released Tuesday.

Asked whether they think waterboarding is a form of torture, more than two-thirds of respondents, or 69 percent, said yes; 29 percent said no.

 

Yes.
Why? Because why would we waterboard the 12-year-old ... This isn't some kid playing jacks scooped up by the U.S. It would be a 12-year-old bomber or terrorist. That's the key... A TERR-OR-IST.
Waterboard vs. death? Yeah that's a no-brainer IMO.

Does the age of a terrorist matter? Be it a 12-year-old suicide bomber or a 93-year-old Nazi camp guard.
It is not death. It's seeking to obtain information to save American lives.
I have no qualms about the methods - so long as it produces the desired results.
I had no problems with the Abu Ghraib prison photos. I don't expect or want a politically correct military. Yes, there should be civilian oversight of the military, but there is a lot of hazy gray areas.


I will say this:
I'm not sure how effective interrogation was given that it took us a decade to find and kill OBL.
Maybe they should have stepped it up a notch.

 

A poll from Nov. 6, 2007 is your proof? Do you have anything from this decade? How about something AFTER Bin Laden was killed? I am sure that poll would have some different results this day and age.

 

And it wouldn't even matter if the numbers were reversed. This is not a goddamned democracy. We don't govern based on fucking opinion polls, otherwise separate but equal would have remained the law of the land for a lot longer.

 

Bill Clinton must not have gotten your memo.

 

That was just the first Google result that popped up, but the numbers stayed roughly the same after that all the way until 2010, the latest data I can find. If you can find a poll showing that the opinion of whether waterboarding is torture has changed substantially since 2007, go for it. I suspect you will not find that opinion. (You may find a shift in attitudes about whether waterboarding is justified in the wake of the Bin Laden event, but I don't think you'll find much change in whether waterboarding is torture.)

Keep in mind also that my post was intended to counter your claim that equating enhanced interrogation to torture is "not valid." Clearly it's a valid opinion that has been held by a pretty substantial majority of the nation. Your dismissal of the opinion makes it no less valid.

 

It's disingenuous to accept assassination,but not waterboarding.

 

I know y'all are pushing that because you so badly want to make Obama look bad when the country is giving him a big thumbs-up. I also know the country isn't buying it because people see Bin Laden as a military target whose killing was strategically important as well as justified. But keep yourselves up at night trying to push that one, and good luck with it.

 

I think people are trying to get the Allende killing to look OK on the coattails of Bin Laden

 

Got it. And sorry if I came off defensive. Didn't mean to be.

 

In fairness, I think Boom has indicated that he fully plans to vote for Obama.

 

Does not matter what the country thinks. What matters is what is legal.

It's a curious position for you to argue that waterboarding is illegal but not assassination.