Terror and Torture

More sanctimony on torture. I have to say that this assumption that the administration condones torture as a policy is baloney, but at the same time, I see no reason to promise terrorists that they'll be treated with dignity and given every opportunity to continue their war while in custody.

If a prisoner spits on a guard, or throws feces, urine, etc. I'm all for punching his ticket. Most of them could have been shot justifiably, and the only reason to detain them is to try to get information from them. Real torture tends to elicit false info and it degrades the person who inflicts it, but trying to polish our image in world opinion is a losing game. I'm sure that the people who are being injured by these individuals wonder what the fuss over torture is all about. It certainly doesn't confirm our own sense of justice to see them given better treatment that their own associates give to their prisoners.

Where is the line to be drawn. I don't think it can be drawn, because each case is different. There are variables, such as the degree of certainty that the subject is a terrorist, his depth of involvement, his position in the organization, etc.

If a prisoner knows where a team is setting a dirty bomb or a nuclear one, how can anyone say that it's inhuman to pressure him or treat him like the vicious scum he is? If someone had squeezed the 9/11 plot out of a prisoner, he would be a hero, even if he left the prisoner crippled or dead.

That being said, what made the behavior of the guards at Abu Ghraib was the fact that they didn't really know anything about these prisoners. They were just prisoners. Their meek submission to this sophomoric treatment suggests that they weren't the vicious characters we think of when we hear reports of Zarqawi or Saddam, or the others.

My point is that we don't tolerate abuse, but what that term means varies with the circumstances. If we're not going to treat terrorists as they deserve once we catch them, we should just kill them on the battlefield and forget about trying to get information out of those we capture.

The real issue is whether we've got the right guys. If we capture people who are small fish, who don't know anything they should be held long enough to punish them and let go. With the McCain amendment, I'm afraid we'll end up rendering more and more of them to nations who don't have such scruples. That's one of the reasons I think it's an idiotic thing to add. I'd rather see that bill vetoed. If we're so worried about our image that we can't stand up to the media or the terrorists, we're playing defense and we've been beaten again.