Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Bin Laden is Dead

...Using the same interrogation techniques that the Bush Administration was criticized for... Yup. The information that lead to the whereabouts of this scumbag started rolling in back with the previous president and continued with the "inhumane alternative interrogation techniques" like waterboarding that the current administration still uses.

Although all of that, I give neither Bush NOR Obama credit. They both wanted him dead, and they both had something to prove. It was the (usually horrible) intelligence agency and the strategic command that came up with the plan(s) and executed them. It was just a matter of the president saying "go"...

As for Trump, while I think that if he ever was president (dear Lord I hope not), I think that he wouldn't take crap from anyone, but then again he would just piss other world leaders off. Lesser of 2 evils. Be a charismatic push-over that is really doing nothing to stop the death spiral that the country is in, or someone so blunt that the world hates the US even more... Maybe I should move to Canada. Nobody hates Canada...

Trump is a buffoon. Not fit to be president. I'd take him over Obama in a heartbeat.

They DIDN'T gain any intelligence about OBL via unlawful, inhumane enhanced interrogation techniques. That was just another nutty republicans claim on O'Reilly.

Here's the truth.

I like Trump and respect him a lot but I also think he would not be a good choice for president. However, I think he is a much better choice than somebody like Palin.

"Trump is every trend in Republican politics over the past thirty-five years taken to its logical conclusion. He is the Republican id, finally entirely unleashed from all restraint and all reality."

-- Johann Hari, in a superb piece in the Independent

(h/t to Chez at http://www.deusexmalcontent.com)

I'll take Palin over Obama, or as Ted Kennedy referred to him, Osama ba Bama. I would like a more excellent choice however.

Well, gee, CIA director Leon Panetta disagrees with the commies. Enhanced interrogation played a significant role in obtaining key information regarding the identity of the couriers.

Did it? link

Torture is illegal, and more importantly, immoral. It should not be used by any modern, civil society, period. It's embarrassing to all involved that this "debate" is suddenly being talked about again.

"Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster."
-Nietzsche (Beyond Good and Evil, p I'm too lazy to get the book and find the quote, but it's in there)

Craig, I'm not saying that enhanced interrogation is or is not torture. That is a conversation and determination that should be made. I'm just saying that enhanced interrogation was effective. Anyone who denies this is missing the point. It is effective. That is not to say it is moral, or where we draw the line between unpleasant interrogation and torture.

Craig, although I appreciate your argument, I disagree with you.

Hypothetical

The US government discovers that Hizbullah has acquired a bio weapon of a hybrid of a particular vicious small pox variety crossed with the Spanish Flu. There are 20 canisters hidden in US cities. Release date is 10 days. Best estimates are that if released in all 20 sites, the US will suffer 100 million deaths in the first 144 hours after release. Things will get worse after that.

You Craig, are chief National Security Adviser to the President of the USA. You are informed by your Director of CIA that they have the mastermind in custody, the guy who knows the location of each of the canisters. Traditional methods of persuasion have resulted in peals of laughter and prayer. No actionable information.

Do you tell the President of the USA that you are morally bound not to use torture. The President asks you whether water boarding is torture.

Craig P., tells the President: ____________________________

The President asks you whether he should authorize the use of water boarding.

Craig P. tells the President: ____________________________

President asks Craig what if water boarding is ineffective, can we morally justify destructive torture in order to save the lives of 100 million Americans and probably 4 billion people worldwide.

Craig P. says, ___________________________________.

Fill in the blank political post. Brilliant!