As you know, President Bush’s nominee for Attorney General, Michael Mukasey, is on shaky ground due for refusing to unequivocally say waterboarding amounts to torture. Now I’m not a big fan of torture, but I honestly have no problem with it in certain situations. Do I think that waterboarding or any other form of torture should be used as a interrogation technique? No. Do I think it should be used when the person in question has knowledge that, if obtained, would save human lives. Yes, every time.
I know a lot of my liberal friends take a very high road with regards to torture, but let me ask you this: Lets say I have taken your spouse and children hostage, and only I know where they are being held. They are being held in a room with three hours of air left. Would you waterboard me to save your family? I sure hope so. But again, I am not calling for widespread use of torture, but rather in very special, specific cases.
But today I want the last word to be someone else’s. Consider the following quote:
“Here’s a tool that I think we should consider keeping on the table – Torture. I’m talking about the (Guantanamo) detainees. We have like three hundred detainees – not all the detainees, by the way – just like the guy who had an apartment in Paterson, New Jersey, and who was inquiring about crop dusting. That guy knows something – right? Now, you know he’s willing to die for this perverse cause. My question is: Is he willing to take a poker up the butt for it? You know he wants to service the seventy-two virgins in paradise. Does he think he can do that after we have crushed his testicles?” National Press Club Luncheon, February 28, 2002.
And ladies and gentleman, that comment marks both the first and last time that Al Franken and I held the same view.
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Ignore the fact that other methods of police work have always been the basis for thwarted terrorist attacks in the United States. Ignore the fact that intelligence gained through torture is almost always inaccurate and yes, you might want a suspect tortured everytime your family was in peril. I don't believe the United States of America should torture ever. Period. But then I'm a liberal and my ethics are not situational. lol
So you're telling me that in my scenario, the one where it's waterboard me or let your family die, you let your family die. THOSE are your ethics.
Look, the fact is EVERYTHING is situational. My stance right now is we don't attack Iran. My stance in a month, when they start threatening Israel is that we ratchet up the sanctions, but we don't attack. My stance three months later, when they start lobbing bombs into Israel, is we bomb the hell out of them. Everything is situational, especially when you consider who we are dealing with. These are terrorist, not Boy Scouts.
But then as a liberal, your ethics are not situational. Somebody should tell Al that.
By the way, I love the clean-shaven look. My God, without that beard you don't look a day older than our days in the cave.
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