Posted by
Michael Privitera on Thursday, May 07, 2009 12:04:17 PM
So let me get this straight. We as Americans do not torture. I agree with president Obama whole-heartedly on this. We don't torture and nor should we. However, waterboarding and "enhanced interrogation techniques" are not torture! Since when is keeping someone up past their bedtime torture? Oh no, you put me in a room with a scary looking bug; I might just wet my pants! Come on people let's use a little bit of that common sense we talk about.
First off let us discuss waterboarding. There is no real physical harm being done to these people. And while we are on the subject of "these people" let us please remember that they are suspected or known terrorist who would gladly kill every last one of us infidels if given the chance for their 77 virgins. There is a doctor in the room, and the idea is to scare, not harm, the person into giving information that would not be gotten through an afternoon cup of tea.
And since when is making someone feel uncomfortable or even scared defined as torture? The media and our current Administration has done an eloquent job in redefining the term to make us all question ourselves. We don't torture Obama says, and he is right, we don't. However, WATERBOARDING is not torture. Sleep deprivation is not torture. Having a prisoner too cold or too hot is not torture. Forcing Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to listen to John Tesh 24 hours a day, while borderline cruel, is not torture.
I will pose one simple question to you all. Would you waterboard someone to gain information to save your child's life? If you say no, then you are completely opposed to any effective interrogation techniques, and I don't know if common sense and logic is the right place for you. But if you would do it to save your child's life, then you must allow it to save someone else's child's life as well. Believe me I wish the world was a safer place. I wish there were not factions out there that would love for the United States to fall, and might I add fall as hard and as embarrassingly as possible.
If you want to know what torture truly is, why don't we take a look at what our adversaries out there might qualify it to be? These are some of the torture techniques used by Al-Qaeda and other undesirables in the world, removing fingernails, shoving shoots underneath fingernails, use of electricity such as a car battery to shock prisoners, hanging people by their own broken limbs, constant beatings and physical abuses, starvation, and unsanitary conditions are just a start. I know these examples are graphic and disturbing, but we need to understand what torture truly is to understand that we as a nation do not torture our captives.
I want us all to take a minute and digest this. We as Americans follow a moral standard on the battlefield and with enemy combatants. The liberal left and the mainstream media would like us to believe that America is a bad and immoral place. They apologize for America as often as they can and condemn those who view traditional values as their guiding principles. I love my country with all that I am, and I know that we are in a dark place currently with our leadership.
I would offer this hope to all Americans who hold traditional Christian values at their core being and fear for what our country is becoming. Rainbows appear after a storm, and grass will grow after a drought. Do not lose faith in what you believe and be steadfast in your faith. The world is darkest before dawn, but dawn will come again. I know that we will find ourselves again as a nation, and America's voice will be rediscovered in it's people. But after all what would I know, I am just a common man with common sense.