The Torture Lexicon

Obviously there has been a lot of hand wringing of late over the issue of torture.

I'm going to attempt to reintroduce a little sanity into this debate.

Charles Krauthammer has an excellent article up on this subject.

In all the lily livered puling going on people have forgotten one word, which if reintroduced brings the decible level way down.

Interrogation

What we are really debating here is when does interrogation become torture. When does creating discomfort to extract information morph into straight up torture. I was tempted to use the term abuse, but as applied to terrorists, I won't as it would make me sick.

Cops interrogate suspects, they try to get the perps tired and disoriented so they will give up information. They will make them physically uncomfortable by withholding bathroom breaks or cigarettes or beverages. In extreme cases they have even tortured the suspects to elicit information of a ticking clock nature, i.e. missing children.

So how do we distinguish between the two?

The first test for torture to me is does it maim/kill/damage?

I fully understand that there are plenty of horrible things that don't leave a mark, but I think this is a good place to start.

If the activity doesn't do any of these things they can definitely be placed in the discomfort category. Unpleasant perhaps, but probably not torture.

Second, does it create such pain or discomfort that the person may say anything to make it stop?

One of the big arguments regarding torture is that it's ineffective. Unfortunately that's not true, however, there are certain techniques that will probably elicit bad intel so from a practical standpoint should probably be avoided.

Third, what is the impact on the troops performing this duty?

There is a lot of anecdotal evidence that interrogators in the Soviet Union were either sadistic creeps to begin with or driven mad by the extremes of that regime.

So we come to the ultimate question, are we torturing?

I can only answer for myself, but I will say that, having read the protocols, I don't think so. I understand there are plenty of folks who are squeamish about this but what are we to do in the face of an implacable enemy?

If an individual is willing to strap an explosive device to their body and go boom, we'll probably have to do more than feed them Krispy Kreme's and tickle their feet to get the information we need.

How far is too far?

That really is the question stripped of all its posturing. We need to reach a consensus on this soon so our servicefolks are not left holding the bag yet again by posturing politicians. I have all the respect in the world for John McCain's service and the unspeakable abuse he suffered during the Vietnam war but in this debate I think he's dead wrong.

However, let's not confuse the two struggles. I heard it put well last week, the primary difference really boils down to this, in Nam we left and came home. The Vietnamese stayed where they were, all they wanted was for us to leave so they could get down to the business of killing millions of thier fellow countrymen.

In this struggle if we leave to soon, if we don't show gut level strength, they follow us home and bring the devastation here.

So how far is too far. Part of me says that there is no limit to the pain and suffering we should bring to these bastards, but then I think about the soldier on the other end of that sentiment. Our soldiers should be free to kill all they can on the honorable field of battle. The nightmares from that alone will be bad enough, but when you add torture into the mix it becomes a different thing entirely.

I guess at the end I am comfortable with our current protocols and urge our politicians to support our folks in the field in every way they can.

What say you?

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