Well the terrorist groups would probally kill me sooner, while the US would prolonge my misery.
Why should he say anything about that? It’s not his call and the captors won’t care what he says.
The “terrorists”. Better odds that they’ll just kill me, and I might even be able to shame them into not torturing me because “that would make you no better than America”. For that matter, they might even might let me go unharmed since I’m no threat to them, and that would let them score propaganda points for being more civilized than America, like Iran did.
I never said that just because we were better than Al Qaeda that made everything alright. It certainly doesn’t make what we do right. I just think that there’s a fundamental difference between groups that will have an 11 or 12 year old boy behead a spy and those who waterboard. I think it’s dishonest to equivocate the two. Unless we have torture techniques and there are instances of torture I am unaware of.
Thanks.
You are right; the waterboarders are clearly morally inferior. Torture is far more evil than killing.
Really ? You have no problem torturing people to death, or until they go insane ? With setting dogs on them, or raping their children in front of them ?
I’d like to see a cite for that last bit. (Soldiers of any army in the field might do that when no officer is watching, but I would distinguish that kind of incident from what happened at Abu Ghraib, which appears to have been an actual matter of policy.)
It was one of the things Seymour Hersh dug up; and was part of the videos/pictures that were suppressed, as you may have heard of. Here’s a mention; it’s from an obviously partisan site of some sort I found by googling, but CNN and such try to avoid covering such stories. Link
What makes you think they’ve been captured by terrorists?
Don’t you know ? Anyone who fights against us is a terrorist. They couldn’t possibly be, say, a resistance guerilla force.
An al-Qaeda group has warned the U.S. to stop looking for them.
I’d rather you behead me on the spot then keep me for years, uncharged, in a prison camp.
Why?
I’d rather be dead then spend years in a POW camp, especially one with govt. approved torture. I also think its more humane. YMMV.
Well, that’s just a restatement of the assertion, and doesn’t explain anything. You do realize that most of those interred at Gitmo have been released (or are awaiting release), don’t you?
My mileage does vary. I’ve never approved of the detention center at Gitmo but pretending that being beheaded is more “humane” than what is going on at Gitmo is a really lame attempt at “proving” how bad it is there. *Really *lame.
My guess is these guys are going to die. A dramatic news piece is more valuable to them than anything they can wrangle using hostages as a bargaining chip.
Me personally, I would rather be dead then spend four years in a regular US prison with assurances I will not be tortured by the employees and will be released on a given date.
Not knowing when/if torture is coming, if/when I will be released, if ever, in the US POW prisons I have read about, yes, I’d rather you kill me on the spot than torture me for a few years, then maybe let me go. Many torture victims brains turn to mush, so being a mental case after released, yes, I’d rather you behead me on the spot. Again, my opinion, you or others here may be able to do a four year stretch in a US POW camp with no problem.
No. I’ve heard many have been released, but not “most.” Cite?
At least 385 not released, and being denied representation
I got it from the Gitmo article in wikipedia. Something like 300+ have been released, 400+ still there, and about 100 awaiting release (I assume many of these are the ones that no country will take).