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Former President George W. Bush: We waterboarded Khalid Sheik Mohammed,

I don't support methods like water boarding, either. It never really made sense to me.

A common argument *for* it is (I'll paraphrase Bill O'Reilly): "If your family was in danger wouldn't you do anything in your power, including water boarding someone, to get more information so you can protect them?"

Well - if my family was in danger and I went vigilante and attempted to torture information out of someone it's possible I could be brought up on charges and accused of torture, at the least. If it's unacceptable for me then it should be unacceptable for the government as well.
 
I gotta give him credit for standing by his convictions. The who article kind of showed that.

"You are not going to see me in the public square criticizing the President," he said, according to The Guardian.

Considering how much his administration is being criticized by the Obama camp, and how much his party is criticizing the Obama administration, I have the utmost respect for his position here.

He's taking a high road on this. It's almost like he has no interest in engaging in political BS anymore. I think Bush truly feels that he took the morally correct actions regarding waterboarding and Iraq.

I may not agree with his actions (with the caveat that I cannot say for certain that I would not have made identical choices in his shoes), but I cannot fault him for doing what he thought was right.
 
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I don't support methods like water boarding, either. It never really made sense to me.

A common argument *for* it is (I'll paraphrase Bill O'Reilly): "If your family was in danger wouldn't you do anything in your power, including water boarding someone, to get more information so you can protect them?"

Well - if my family was in danger and I went vigilante and attempted to torture information out of someone it's possible I could be brought up on charges and accused of torture, at the least. If it's unacceptable for me then it should be unacceptable for the government as well.

I agree. While any of us might lose our heads and do something we shouldn't, that doesn't change that we shouldn't. And torturing someone is not without risks. Remember we tortured al Libi and got misinformation that we used. Torture is hardly a certian thing. Misinformation, which can hurt us a great deal, is a real problem with torture.
 
I'll give Bush credit for having the guts to avoid attacking Obama, even if I think it Obama has done (or not done) much that deserves criticism.
 
Nope, no problem for me, either.
 
I don't support methods like water boarding, either. It never really made sense to me.

A common argument *for* it is (I'll paraphrase Bill O'Reilly): "If your family was in danger wouldn't you do anything in your power, including water boarding someone, to get more information so you can protect them?"

Well - if my family was in danger and I went vigilante and attempted to torture information out of someone it's possible I could be brought up on charges and accused of torture, at the least. If it's unacceptable for me then it should be unacceptable for the government as well.

Legally it is unacceptable for you.
However given the circumstances that your family is in danger, would you either do it yourself, countenance someone else in your family doing it or countenance someone else doing it, in order to save YOUR Family.
Please try to answer thoughtfully and truthfully.
I know what my answer would be under these circumstances.
 
I don't support methods like water boarding, either. It never really made sense to me.

A common argument *for* it is (I'll paraphrase Bill O'Reilly): "If your family was in danger wouldn't you do anything in your power, including water boarding someone, to get more information so you can protect them?"

Well - if my family was in danger and I went vigilante and attempted to torture information out of someone it's possible I could be brought up on charges and accused of torture, at the least. If it's unacceptable for me then it should be unacceptable for the government as well.

I don't think this is the right argument.

If you grabbed a purse snatcher and locked him in your closet for six months, that would be unacceptable.
If you went to Afghanistan and traveled around the countryside shooting insurgents, that would be unacceptable.
If you pulled over people who sped along your road and forced them to pay you $60, that would be unacceptable.

The fact that you can't do something doesn't say anything about whether the government can do something. By their very nature, governments are authorized to do far more than individuals.
 
I don't support methods like water boarding, either. It never really made sense to me.

A common argument *for* it is (I'll paraphrase Bill O'Reilly): "If your family was in danger wouldn't you do anything in your power, including water boarding someone, to get more information so you can protect them?"

Well - if my family was in danger and I went vigilante and attempted to torture information out of someone it's possible I could be brought up on charges and accused of torture, at the least. If it's unacceptable for me then it should be unacceptable for the government as well.

unbelievable!! You wouldn't try to save your own family??
 
unbelievable!! You wouldn't try to save your own family??

I agree with Aunt Spiker. If my family was in danger I would not waterboard anyone. I would find another way to save them. This is because I love my country and I am not willing to torture some one in order get information from them and ruin what I believe are important values to this country.
 
Former President George W. Bush: We waterboarded Khalid Sheik Mohammed, and I'd 'do it again'

So doing the same acts as our enemy will not set us apart. The man even defended his action disgusting.

lol the same acts as our enemies would have been cutting his ****ing head off. Waterboarding is not torture and KSM was a known terrorist operative who planned the murder of 3,000 U.S. civilians, maybe we should have offered him cake and ice cream, then I'm sure he would have talked.
 
lol the same acts as our enemies would have been cutting his ****ing head off. Waterboarding is not torture and KSM was a known terrorist operative who planned the murder of 3,000 U.S. civilians, maybe we should have offered him cake and ice cream, then I'm sure he would have talked.

According to the US government, waterboarding is torture. W ehave prosecuted civilians and people in our military for using waterboarding in the past.
 
Former President George W. Bush: We waterboarded Khalid Sheik Mohammed, and I'd 'do it again'

So doing the same acts as our enemy will not set us apart. The man even defended his action disgusting.

Of course he defended his actions. Has he ever admitted making any mistakes? His character is too weak to be so honorable. He's too stupid to even be aware of how the misinfo they got from those water boarding sessions vastly outweighed any valuable info. He's too intellectually lazy to even contemplate how many lives their show of bravado put in danger. He's too dishonest to admit that all that misinfo cost them (the CIA, FBI, British intel services, etc.) millions of dollars in time and manpower tracking down wild goose chases.

Who gives a **** what this piece of trash says?

We can tell he's lying. His lips are moving. :coffeepap


 
BTw, any evidence Bush saved lives with torture?
 
unbelievable!! You wouldn't try to save your own family??

Ah, yeah, that's right - I, a petit 4'11" woman will not be trying to waterboard anyone no matter what - nor will I be slinging a gun or other some such.
What good is it to try to 'save my family' - in this fictitious situation - if I'm only going to get my ass handed to me in the process?
I would expect law enforcement to step in and handle it without resorting to taking time torturing someone.

Besides, torture leads to people dilvulging information which might not be accurate - I don't know how 'accurate' such information is, now, but back in the days of the salem witch trials and the spanish enquisition torture was used and false confessions came pouring out.

I'd rather have limited *real* information than overabundent *bull***** lies.
 
I gotta give him credit for standing by his convictions. The who article kind of showed that.



Considering how much his administration is being criticized by the Obama camp, and how much his party is criticizing the Obama administration, I have the utmost respect for his position here.

He's taking a high road on this. It's almost like he has no interest in engaging in political BS anymore. I think Bush truly feels that he took the morally correct actions regarding waterboarding and Iraq.

I may not agree with his actions (with the caveat that I cannot say for certain that I would not have made identical choices in his shoes), but I cannot fault him for doing what he thought was right.
I give him credit for being respectful and holding his tongue of the new administration. It's what he should do and what all presidents should do barring some dictatorial takeover or something extreme.

With that said, he really has no need to come out and criticize Obama. His former administration (Dana Parino, Cheney etc.) has done a great job for him.
 
unbelievable!! You wouldn't try to save your own family??

Yeah, I would certainly try to save my family and if it is done under torture I would use everything I could come up with including, lies, tears and fears !!!! ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING GOES !!!
 
I gotta give him credit for standing by his convictions. The who article kind of showed that.



Considering how much his administration is being criticized by the Obama camp, and how much his party is criticizing the Obama administration, I have the utmost respect for his position here.

He's taking a high road on this. It's almost like he has no interest in engaging in political BS anymore. I think Bush truly feels that he took the morally correct actions regarding waterboarding and Iraq.

I may not agree with his actions (with the caveat that I cannot say for certain that I would not have made identical choices in his shoes), but I cannot fault him for doing what he thought was right.

Though I don't agree with his decision to torture, I do believe he did what he thought best for the US. He's certainly not the evil dick that some make him out to be.
 
Though I don't agree with his decision to torture, I do believe he did what he thought best for the US. He's certainly not the evil dick that some make him out to be.

Not an evil dick, but an arrogant one.
 
I agree with Aunt Spiker. If my family was in danger I would not waterboard anyone. I would find another way to save them. This is because I love my country and I am not willing to torture some one in order get information from them and ruin what I believe are important values to this country.

soccerboy,

Find another way? Like what?

Suppose there was no other way, what would you do?
 
Though I don't agree with his decision to torture, I do believe he did what he thought best for the US. He's certainly not the evil dick that some make him out to be.

he's not evil, just a dick. and pretty damned ignorant.
 
I watched a video of that journalist, Pearl, having his head slowly sawed off by terrorists. He was terrified, and before his head ever came off he went from screaming to making inhuman-sounding croaking noises.


Seeing that video put an upper limit on how much sympathy I have for poor widdle terrorists who got waterboarded, especially considering we waterboard our own soldiers to toughen them up against interrogation in SERE training.
 
soccerboy,

Find another way? Like what?

Suppose there was no other way, what would you do?

I don't know, but all I do know is I am not willing nor can I ever torture some one.
 
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