Watch the video. Anything a normal, sane person is willing to pay $800 to have done to himself and then laugh about minutes later cannot possibly be considered torture.
To me, this looks like a measured and humane alternative interrogation technique. It is preferable to actual torture, which has historically been far more barbaric. Obviously it should only be used on true bad guys. But, KSM was responsible for the deaths of more than 3,000 Americans and he was attempting to murder upwards of 100,000 or more if he could. Do I care if his interrogators made him uncomfortable or made him feel like he was drowning? No.
As Allahpundit said:
If you missed it last month, watch Brian Ross explain to O’Reilly how waterboarding KSM helped [foil a 9/11-type plot](http://hotair.com/archives/2006/09/20/bombshell-abc-independently-confirms-success-of-cia-torture-tactics/) targeting the Library Tower in L.A. It’s rude of me to introduce irrelevant details like that into the debate, I know, but I do love to shock.
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The difference is the context. The man in the video who is the subject of water boarding knows that there is no real threat of being harmed, thus the mental anxiety is removed. In a real situation, where the captive do not know what the intentions of their captors are, the mental aspect of the toture is real. Plus, in a real scenario we could speculate as to how much physicality would go into such a practice — regardless of what military and government the soldiers belong too.
Nevertheless, from watching the video I cannot begin to phathom how Jesus would participate in such a practice or endorse it. Therefore since I am called to be a follower of Jesus, I can neither practice nor endorse such a behavior.
Not true. The whole point of the technique is to make the terrorist uncomfortable without injuring or killing him so that you can question him. KSM knows they wanted information, so he knows they didn’t intend to kill him.
Jesus gave up his place in heaven to save humanity. What’s more important to you, you’re non-violent, pacifist purity or the lives of other people? Because that’s what it comes down to.
Without police and soldiers willing to do violence in a civilized and controlled way, there is chaos — a tyranny of the ruthless and the strong over the principled and the weak.
I believe that God is some how using various levels of civil governments to maintain some order, but that does not mean that every tatic used is appropriate or moral. And remeber, there is not one civil government that has ever ended the evil and chaotic behavior of humanity. The best the civil government can do is to regulate it without contributing to such chaos through losing its own moral integrity (which is something that has repeated itself throughout world history).
Your comment makes it seem that a non-violent person cannot believe in non-violence and also be concerned for the welfare of people at the same time. How naive. Jesus did come to save humanity but he also came to teach us a new way for living. What the fallen and chaotic world does is there business but what person does (or supports) who is under the reign of God is determined by Jesus who perfectly demonstrated what life looks like when God rules a persons life.
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