U.S.A. tortures. Go ahead, deny it Bush lovers.

[ice grillin you]

Torture does not work if the person in hot seat doesn't know anything. 

lol

[Geowhizzer]

perhaps it's hypocritical but even though i'm against torture, i totally support the death penalty. 

I am oddly enough really starting to despise the death penalty a bit.  The problem is that I don't trust our judicial system to get it correct.  There are too many people wrongly convicted.  Sadly, many guilty people also go free.

That's where I am at this point.  The chances of an innocent person being executed are far too high for me to in good conscience condone the death penalty.

[Diomedes]

In WWII U.S. interrogators used chess to work their way into Nazi heads and gain intel.  That was when America was noble.  Now, we stand 'em naked with their arms chained to the ceiling and throw cold water on them for days on end.  Others have said it well enough I won't belabor the point.  Torture is ineffective unamerican and immoral.

I universally oppose the death penalty.  Life in prison without parole is the solution.  Capital punishment is unfairly administered, ineffective at deterring crime, and financially wasteful.  Not to mention you can't really call it a democracy if the government can kill (or for that matter torture) its own citizens.

[QB Eagles]

In WWII U.S. interrogators used chess to work their way into Nazi heads and gain intel.  That was when America was noble.

That was also when the United States put tens of thousands of American citizens in concentration camps because of their race.

[General_Failure]

At least the blankets were uninfected.

[PhillyPhanInDC]

I don't oppose the idea of the death penalty.

I oppose the current implimentation.

Ever see that show, To Catch A Predator?If I ran things, there would be a dude behind the door with a .22 who put a round right behind the ear of every sicko bastich that walked into the house. Leave em in a pile. I don't think anyone could disagree with the death penalty for the likes of this:

http://www.youtube.com/v/bB-9QnGNvxg&hl=en&fs=1

[Diomedes]

In WWII U.S. interrogators used chess to work their way into Nazi heads and gain intel.  That was when America was noble.

That was also when the United States put tens of thousands of American citizens in concentration camps because of their race.

Good point.  America wasn't quite as noble as I like to think it was back then.

Still, torture....no.

[Seabiscuit36]

LOL, no torture at all during WWII

[PhillyPhanInDC]

In WWII U.S. interrogators used chess to work their way into Nazi heads and gain intel.  That was when America was noble.

That was also when the United States put tens of thousands of American citizens in concentration camps because of their race.

Good point.  America wasn't quite as noble as I like to think it was back then.

Still, torture....no.

Troof. But we as a culture that prides itself on being the shining bastion of Democracy, equal rights, fairness, etc. should be able to recognize where we got it right, where we got it wrong, and correct it. The Phillipine-American war was the first time to my knowledge that waterboarding was used by Americans, to whit:

"A man is thrown down on his back and three or four men sit or stand on his arms and legs and hold him down; and either a gun barrel or a rifle barrel or a carbine barrel or a stick as big as a belaying pin, -- that is, with an inch circumference, -- is simply thrust into his jaws and his jaws are thrust back, and, if possible, a wooden log or stone is put under his head or neck, so he can be held more firmly. In the case of very old men I have seen their teeth fall out, -- I mean when it was done a little roughly. He is simply held down and then water is poured onto his face down his throat and nose from a jar; and that is kept up until the man gives some sign or becomes unconscious. And, when he becomes unconscious, he is simply rolled aside and he is allowed to come to. In almost every case the men have been a little roughly handled. They were rolled aside rudely, so that water was expelled. A man suffers tremendously, there is no doubt about it. His sufferings must be that of a man who is drowning, but cannot drown. ..."

It was reasoned then that the Filipino victims were savages, and understood no other way, and would bend to no other form of interrogation. The practice then was admonished by the American public, as it believed that it was the American soldiers who had become the savages.

[QB Eagles]

In WWII U.S. interrogators used chess to work their way into Nazi heads and gain intel.  That was when America was noble.

That was also when the United States put tens of thousands of American citizens in concentration camps because of their race.

Good point.  America wasn't quite as noble as I like to think it was back then.

Still, torture....no.

I agree with you on torture and capital punishment (and waterboarding is definitely torture). But I must say, the main reason the US did not torture in WWII was that the Germans and Japanese had many thousands of American POWs. Obviously some of these American POWs were treated quite badly anyway, but the situation could have really gotten out of hand if word got back to Axis HQ that the Allies considered torture fair game.

German POWs were treated a lot worse by the Allies after the war was officially over. I don't think it was ever a result of a policy of torture, but the officials looked the other way on beatings, starvations, etc -- sometimes to death -- in that era.

Incidentally, I believe that authorizing waterboarding was among the war crimes that Japanese officials were charged with after the war.

[Sgt PSN]

I universally oppose the death penalty.  Life in prison without parole is the solution.  Capital punishment is unfairly administered, ineffective at deterring crime, and financially wasteful.  Not to mention you can't really call it a democracy if the government can kill (or for that matter torture) its own citizens.

i keep a small magazine rack in my bathroom, mostly old issues of playboy and penthouse from when i subsribed to them about 10 yrs ago.  anyway, i was taking a pretty hefty dump the other day so i pulled out an old penthouse and started thumbing though.  there was an article in there that caught my eye about dubbya titled "what me, worry?" from 2000 when dubbya was running for prez.  it focuses on dubbya's policies as texas gov, primarily regarding crime, punishment and the texas prison system. 

i tried finding a copy of it online to link to, but no luck.  if i get some free time, i might go through the trouble of scanning it so i can host it online and link it here.  it really was a good read and would have served as a good warning to the type of person bush was before we elected him to office.  who knew that penthouse was capable of publishing good articles outside of their forum?

in a nutshell, when dubbya enacted his new policies, texas prisons began getting over crowded and steeper punishements were handed out.....especially life w/o parole and death sentences.  the end result was that prison violence began to escalate at alarming rates because now that these prisoners are either on death row or serving life w/o parole possibilities, there is no incentive for them at all to go along peacefully.  gang activity in the prisons increased, guards were attacked and murdered, prisoners were attacking other prisoners, holding them hostage, murder, etc.  it all increased.  the inmates were literally running the asylum.  prisons were critically undermaned with guards and the guards that were working were highly unqualified and there were cases of guards working for the prisoners in exchange for protection.  yeah, the prisoners were offering guards protection and in one documented case, a female guard was paying inmates by having sex with them. 

anyway, the long term prison sentences won't really solve any problems imo.  it's just sweeping a problem under the rug. 

of course, what to do with hard core criminals is probably a problem that will never truly get solved.  do you go eye for an eye and sentence a murderer to death?  what if he's later found innocent by scientific evidence 20 years later?  but if you sentence him to life w/o parole, he's now spent 20 years in the prison system and is getting released at mid-life.  after spending 20 years with the scum of the earth, is he not going to assemilate even a little into the criminal lifestyle?  is releasing him back into society really going to benefit him at that point?  should we start a prison colony on the moon and simply jettison convicts up there and let them murderdeathkill each other?  there probably isn't a single right answer on how to address the problem.  but i know that when it comes to the criminals who are beyond help and reform.....the violent killers and rapists.....i have no problem with just eliminating them completely and making the world a slightly better place to live. 

[fansince61]

In WWII U.S. interrogators used chess to work their way into Nazi heads and gain intel.  That was when America was noble.  Now, we stand 'em naked with their arms chained to the ceiling and throw cold water on them for days on end.  Others have said it well enough I won't belabor the point.  Torture is ineffective unamerican and immoral.

The RVN and Desert Storm 1 & 2 soldiers appear to be Ghandi-esk compared to the WWII guys.  All Americans were pulling for America in WWII (libs and conservatives!).  We  just have soo many "smart people" today who are experts on things they know nothing about..children running the country from their lofty positions above the citizen/soldier rabble.  If we are attacked again may they be the first to go. GBA

[Butchers Bill]

of course, what to do with hard core criminals is probably a problem that will never truly get solved....should we start a prison colony on the moon and simply jettison convicts up there and let them murderdeathkill each other? 

The Moon, New York City, same thing.

[ATV]

Not only did the Bush administration torture, but they tortured to death....and some of the victims were innocent....

http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/05/06/us-interrogators-killed-dozens-human-rights-researcher-and-rights-group-say/