Holy mother of God. Al Qaida tortures kid for two years

The problem is, when we round up people --- such as the innocent taxi driver who happened to take a wrong turn one day and was killed by our military for shits and giggles --- we don't know for certain if they are indeed the "people who do shit like this."

Why is that so hard to comprehend?

And in case some of us have forgotten, many, many Sunnis have been killed at the hands of Shias (and vice-versa, of course), including having their eyes and skulls (and God knows what else) pierced by electric screwdrivers.

What happened to the boy was terrible. But it's nothing out of the ordinary over there --- except perhaps that he actually lived.

 

Seriously. You staying with this one, Hondo?

 

So when they torture someone, it's horrible. (And it is. I'm not arguing this.)

But if we torture someone, that's OK?

Either torture is wrong or it isn't. The motivations don't matter. Neither does the identity of the torturer.

 

People and things like this are exactly why one of my brothers has long contended that that entire region of the world "should be turned into a parking lot."

Seriously. That's what he thinks, and he's said it many times.

I've learned not to argue with him about it. For the record, though, I do not agree.

 

Please go back and read up on our enhanced interrogation program.

Nothing we did compares to this. We never pulled out teeth with pliers. We didn't pull off fingernails. We didn't break arms. We didn't drive nails into the legs of detainees and we didn't hit them in the head with shovels.

Some of you have really gone insane over this issue. There is no moral equivalency here.

Let's also remember that everything we did was in an effort to obtain life saving information.

This boy was tortured for sport.

This is our enemy and having a beer with them isn't going to solve the problem.

 

YankeeFan,

My brother thanks you, and would love you.

(And I pretty much agree, too. I just am not quite as vehement as my brother, and wouldn't make the blanket judgments he does concerning this topic/region of the world).

 

Since no one suggests this, why mention it?

 

Because it is the height of intellectual honesty.

 

So Bush told you that it was to obtain life-saving information, and you believed him. Yet when Obama tells you, well, anything, you (a) refuse to believe it and (b) accuse anyone who does believe it of being a Kool-Aid-drinking sycophant.

Modern, civilized nations do not torture. For any reason. If you wish to attempt to justify torture, you may. But you do so having implicitly conceded that you do not believe the U.S. to be a modern, civilized nation.

 

The worst thing that happened under the Bush administration is some guys might have had water poured down their nose, deprived if sleep and had to listen to some Satanic rock music. These people pull off body parts, gouge eyes, behead, stab, shoot, rape, mutilate, cut, slice and dice, just for the heck of it. WHatever, we did (and I wish it had not happened, by the way), was at least to get information to avoid further attacks on the U.S.

These guys tortured a 6-year old just because they could. They're going to have very amused looks on their faces when they get to where they think they're going to meet Allah, and be informed that there's no air conditioning, or virgins.

 

Look, I'm ok with Obama waging war, just as I was ok with it. I'm glad he took out the Taliban leader in Pakistan yesterday.

I'm not the hypocrite like those of you on the left who only oppose war when a Republican is in office. (There sure were a lot of protests on the left about Bosnia, Haiti, Mogadishu, etc.)

There's a lot of bitching around here that Republicans are opposing healthcare reform in an effort to bring down Obama. Your side -- Reid, Pelosi, Gore, Clinton, and more -- opposed our own troops in a war in an effort to bring down a President. That's disgusting.

Keep playing the moral equivalency game if you must, but nothing we did approaches what was done to that boy.

Cry me a river about depriving murderous terrorists of sleep, or making them listen to bad music, or keeping them cold or on their feet for long periods of time. Or in the case of four people, pouring water down their nose.

It has no resemblance at all to what was done to this boy.

 

And yet, "pouring water down their nose" was a capital offense during World War II.