Comments on: Apparently, opposing torture is an attribute of “the left”

By: wj

wj — Mon, 14 Nov 2005 00:14:03 +0000

Once upon a time, the right castigated the left (not always accurately, but that’s another story) for having abandon the concept of national honor. How ironic that it is now many of those same people who appear to have no concept of honor. To them, expedience is all. Or perhaps, given that torture is demonstrably of no real value in gathering accurate information, perhaps their expedience is merely a facade for something even less honorable.

By: Jim S

Jim S — Sun, 13 Nov 2005 23:28:11 +0000

The defenders of torture are all the same. They completely abandon the concept of guilty until proven innocent when it comes to “The War on Terror”.

By: The Moderate Voice

The Moderate Voice — Sun, 13 Nov 2005 22:37:00 +0000

A rumble on the right side of blog-world

John Cole of Balloon Juice, someone who leans to the right but thinks instead of mindlessly repeating talking points, is discovering that opposition to torture is

By: Jack Grant

Jack Grant — Sun, 13 Nov 2005 20:18:46 +0000

Ron, in light of your comment on the interrogation class, here is something that might interest you. One of the last commenters at the post on Balloon Juice wrote:

SERE course… Three points.

First, I volunteered.

Second, I knew there was a definite scheduled end – hard as it was to remember.

Third, while we never had the pleasure of being beat with baseball bats while wrapped in a sleeping bag, nor do I recall anyone telling of being piled in a naked human pyramid, I do recall that the instructors told us that what we’d experienced WAS torture.

We went through torture lite to better prepare us to resist and cope with more severe torture in the event we encountered it. The instructors regularly condemned it in those classes – it was stuff done by evil nations, not us. We only prepared for it because the folk on the other side used it.

So pardon me while I think your statement using SERE as a defense of using torture is, at best, a steaming pile of manure.

I have never undergone any course like that, but the point that the instructors said that what was being done to them WAS torture is illustrative of what was once regarded as unacceptable behavior that apparently the current administration feels is acceptable.

By: Ron Beasley

Ron Beasley — Sun, 13 Nov 2005 20:07:15 +0000

The reality is torture is only effective in getting people to tell you what they think you want to hear not the truth. That’s the first thing they taught us when I went through the DIA interrogation class in the late 60’s. Since we are dealing with an administration that is only interested in what they want to hear is it any surprise they support torture.