Quote:
Originally Posted by Laz116
Name one case where it has stopped a imminent terrorist attack. Your reasoning is faulty: We torture... nothing happens... ergo torture works.
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Oh you really don't get the geneva convention do you.
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Let me google that for you:
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/46949
That's fairly recent (April 2009), there are lots of articles listed on Google that indicate torture did or did not reveal any useful information. Depends on what you want to believe, I suppose.
Geneva convention?
It doesn't apply to civilian combatants that are captured while engaging military forces. Which brings to mind your very valid point that many of the Guatanomo prisoners were not captured by American forces, and may not have ever engaged American forces.
And in the interest of being "the good guy", it would seem to be best to adhere to the Geneva convention regardless of whether a strict interpretation requires it.
BUT, I tend to agree with DesertGrandma on this. IF a prisoner has indeed been fighting against the US (I say that because I agree with you that there is a lot of question about whether many of these prisoners were ever combatants) I have no problems with interrogation techniques up to and including waterboarding. It does no permanent (physical) damage, and if we get information that saves life I'd say that's a fair trade.
Especially when the enemy we're fighting against couldn't care less about the Geneva convention. DG has mentioned it already - but frankly an enemy that chops off heads and proudly posts the video needs something to be scared of.