When is torture acceptable?

[Bluesplayer]

Without getting off on a question of what, exactly, constitutes "torture," when is it acceptable for a state to use it to gain national security-related intelligence?

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

1. Is there a reason you posted the same thread twice?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1867704

[Bluesplayer]

5. about your signature

BTW, I always liked the passage about going into your closet to pray, rather than stand on the streetcorners so that everyone can see how holy you are... That's one that the fundies don't like very much.

[longship]

2. Never, ever, ever.

Torture is never acceptible under any conditions.

BTW, This is a duplicate.
You didn't get enough "Nevers" from the first post?

[Warpy]

4. Never, for two reasons

First, it doesn't work. That's been proven over and over again.

Second, we won't torture because of who WE are, not because of who THEY are.

[Bluesplayer]

3. Sorry - the first one disappeared just when it was going pretty well.....

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

6. no it's still there..promise

[leftofthedial]

7. when republicans do it

to brown-skinned people or liberals


apparently

[1932]

8. I think this is easy: torture is OK when you use it to stop many innocent

people from dying.

However, it should never be OK to use torture to get evidence that you use to imprison or punish the person. And also, if the torturer makes a mistake and tortures someone who didn't have the evidence they thought they'd have, the toruturer better be prepared to pay for his or her mistake.

So, Gitmo is wrong if they're just rounding people up, torturing them, holding them for long periods of time, and not getting any good information.

But if you have someone in cutody you know just planted a bomb in NYC and the only way to get the information needed to find the bomb from that person is to threaten them, or their families or to pistol whip them, then I actually think you have what verges on a moral obligation to do so.