So, since I'm apparently a whiny, Obama hating, negative mongering conservative, let me dig a little more at the audacity of idiocy. Or no wait, we can't question the "one" now because that's all of a sudden un-American. Just like being Patriotic today means "paying more taxes".
So Obama announced as one of his first Executive orders to close Guantanamo Bay.
Concurrently I stumbled upon this article: http://www.military.com/news/article/released-detainee-now-an-al-qaida-leader.html
Headline reads:
"Released Detainee Joins Al-Qaida"
Now granted, I don't agree with the way everything has been handled regarding Guantanamo Bay, but a couple things to keep in consideration, our enemy is unconventional and may require an unconventional approach.
I disagree with torture. It is wrong. So.... define torture? Is waterboarding torture? I don't know, I've never been waterboarded. But I have experienced highly stressful situations imposed by military trainers to simulate combat environments. Stress can have a negative impact on the body for sure, and one of the tactics in question at Guantanamo Bay was the playing of stress inducing music. Torture? I personally don't think so. We are dealing with an enemy that is fanatical, suicidal, and extreme to the point of cutting the heads off of Americans with a dull knife. So.... putting an extremist under a stressfull, controlled environment such as waterboarding in order to extract information that could prevent another 9-11? I know where I stand........
First of all let me thank you for sounding a little less "fox news" in your post GWH. I don't completely agree with you on this, but I appreciate your approach in this article to a very heated topic. However, I do disagree with the judgment call on water boarding as not being considered torture.
ReplyDeleteAs I understand the practice of water boarding, a human is placed on a board at a slight incline so that when water is dumped over their heads the water goes into their breathing passages and the individual is given to thinking they are drowning or are going to die. Some claim that this technique has no lasting physical injuries while others claim that it can cause brain damage, and lung damage. The psychological effects on the other hand are universally accepted as being long lasting and very real. The psychological effect here being various manifestations of crippling fear.
If this is true, and these are the effects of water boarding, then I would say that the primary purpose of such a tactic seems to serve punishment upon the captured individual. Secondly, there is the aspect of extracting useful intelligence about the combatants terrorists allegiances along with other useful information to further the cause of the captor.
Last I read in the scriptures this was said about the spirit of fear 2 Tim 1:7, "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."
Sounds like water boarding is hardly in line with the goals of the gospel or inline with someone seeking to be the example of Christ like love to the world. How can we sit with a clear conscience as our country hypocritically inflicts terror and fear upon the very people who wish to do the same to us? Are we not then inflicting the very thing we wish to avoid onto another? Is being held safe from cruel and unusual punishment a right of man not just citizens? If so, I hardly find it consistent for a latter-day saint to endorse such a practice.
I am not saying that convicted terrorists should not be punished, or should be let free. Where found guilty, there should be punishment, even unto death. But that is for those found guilty. Even Sadaam got a trial and the situation was that much better for such patience.
First of all, you're welcome for watering down my true feelings. I did it just for you, James. Second, I explicitly stated that I am against torture, however I am not against creative measures to ensure the liberty of this nation. Unfortunately, liberty cannot be protected through force alone and I fear we are losing it more and more on a daily basis because a majority are turning away from God. In Alma 44 Moroni offered Zerahemna an ultimatum: I command you by all the desires which ye have for life, that ye deliver up your weapons of war unto us, and we will seek not your blood, but we will spare your lives, if ye will go your way and come not again to war against us.
ReplyDelete7 And now, if ye do not this, behold, ye are in our hands, and I will command my men that they shall fall upon you, and inflict the wounds of death in your bodies, that ye may become extinct;
Pretty clear cut. Seeing as how our enemy today does not value life in the least degree, and seeing as how the people at Guantanamo Bay are Enemy Combatants captured as Prisoners of War, rather than torture; I believe they ought to be offered the opportunity to take an oath, to swear to Allah that they will lay down their weapons of war and cease their desires for our destruction. Otherwise, they should be put to death.
GWH, I didn't say your feelings were watered down. Your writing actually sounded more substantial and less like Ann Coulter during her period. I meant it as a compliment and not a tear down. Sorry if it came across that way.
ReplyDeleteha. Didn't know I came across that way. That is a compliment.
ReplyDeleteI assume that you mean being placed aside Ann Coulter was the compliment in your eyes, not the part about Ann Coulter during her period.
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