What should the U.S. policy be on torture?

Two wrongs don't make it right. That's the logical flaw in the most common argument you get from torture advocates. Advocates believe that since someone is labelled a terrorist - even if he turns out to be just some taxi driver as was the case for one man held in Gitmo for 3 years and waterboarded multiple times - that he should be tortured.

But what someone else has done (even if you can prove what he did) is not justification for what you do. The Germans blamed the Jews for losing WWI. Even if they were right, it does not justify what the Germans did in WWII.

But that is exactly how Americans are justifying the torture of accused terrorists.

Consider this: When the FBI captured Tim McVeigh, they felt that another bombing was imminent. They honestly thought another bombing would happen within 24 hours. But still, they did not resort to the kind of treatment that the American advocates of torture call for in people who were subsequently PROVEN innocent.

I think those who advocate torture should all undergo it each time it is ordered on anyone else.

Also, since we torture people, even when they are proven innocent later on, that gives everyone else who captures an American (military or civilian) the right to torture us. This is by their own logic.

Another argument used by advocates is that it saves American lives. But studies prove this is not the case. Studies prove that the tortured will say anything to end the torture. They will lie far more often under torture than they would otherwise. So torture cannot save lives. If anything, it sends our people on wild goose chases and ties up our resources that might otherwise be better spent verifying a more truthful person. If anything, torture costs more lives than it saves.

Another argument (the most pathetic of them all) is that since some people have tortured our guys, that gives us the liscense to torture anyone we want, any time we want. These people usually try to make some emotional plea with ever increasingly graphic stories to try getting you to forget that two wrongs, no matter how heinous, don't make it right.

The germans used mustard gas on allied troops in WWII. This does not give us liscense to use mustard gas on anyone else, ever. But the advocates of that pathetic argument make that very claim.

The final argument I've heard is that since America is the biggest, baddest nation on Earth, we can do this with impunity. Nobody's big enough to stop us, and that gives us the right to do anything we want - incuding torture. But anyone with any moral sense can see the problems with that argument.

Mostly, those who advocate torture never expect their actions to have consequences. They think they exist in a vaccuum; that nobody will (or should) ever do anything in reaction to what we have done. In fact, most of the enemies of America today are the result of past American actions. Iran was once our ally until we toppled their government and installed a puppet regime. The Afganis once considered us their greatest allies until we broke our promises to them at the end of the Soviet war. Even 9/11 has roots in our involvement in the internal affairs of middle east countries. Bin Laden said so himself, if anyone cared to read it.

Torture has no place in a civilized world. Anyone who uses it proves they are uncivilized. There are far more effective methods. It is immoral, unethical, and causes more problems than it solves. And in the case of America turning Abu Ghraib into a sado sodo porno studio, it obviously hands terrorist organization the greatest recruiting bonanza possible. People need to start thinking about the consequences of their actions instread of just reacting like mindless animals to every event.

U.S. troops have consistently been tortured and or killed while via overseas forces. This was once actual for the period of WWII, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the primary U.S. Gulf War and the War on Terrorism. The simplest nations or forces that even care approximately the Geneva Convention banning terror are The U.S., France, England, Canada and Australia. There is not any ethical prime floor in a clash and U.S. forces shall be tortured regardless at the individuals they combat.

The Geneva Convention does not work,

Look at every past war and find anyone but the US, and some of it's Allies that go by it, In the past Germany, Japan, Korea, to name a few didn't care about that, How many of our men had to endure torture while we housed fed and gave medical attention to there soldiers, I still see visions of men with broken bones not healing right and there ribs sticking out from not eating.

If they are not part of the Genia convention or a uniformed army they do what ever it takes.

I know some will complain that it is not humane, but I would say thing. The animals that took some of our people, do you think they would rather have been beaten a little or have their heads chopped off. So I do not want to hear any of this liberal moon bat whining about it.

Look at all these little fascists.

Torturing for any means is unacceptable and don't try to convenience yourself that it is anything but evil. I guess if you spend enough of your life being told that America is the best and it is us against them you see other people as subhuman.

The SS is hiring I hear.

that we are the shining example of freedom and justice in the world and that the people that have that reputation do not engage in the same tactics that tyrants use. Its a no brainer. Those who argue in favor of torture or try to deny that what we did was torture are small minded people who are basically saying that if others do something its bad and a crime, but if we do it that its ok.

The al qaida rabble do NOT represent a legitimate government. They are not signatories to the Geneva Convention, and they give no quarter when fighting. They should expect none in return.

I would take a blowtorch to them if it saved ONE American life.

I'm SICK of hearing about their "rights" from hand wringing libs who care more about our enemies than our own.

We should be in full compliance with the Geneva conventions.

In times of war you can't say pretty please and expect the enemy to tell you their game plan!

If scaring the devil out of them works, go for it! It's better than what they do to us!

dude,you answered your own question.no uniform,you are a terrorist....