Probably the worst job in the Military at this point

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Darwin333

Lifer
Dec 11, 2006
19,946
2,329
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I'd only use it where the cost of it being found out and publicized was worth the potential information gained. Sad as it may be, saving the life of a soldier from torturing a person captured on the ground in that area, with the people doing the torture some amatuer squad folks, isn't a great enough gain of info vs. cost to US perception and precedent set.

I'm talking more like high value detainees who are laughing in the face of interrogators, or just playing them, and where we have credible information they know things that we think we need to know. In such a scenario, the torture (and make no PC excuse about it, it's torture) would be conducted in a controlled environment by skilled interrogators. Would I authorize someone in that situation being waterboarded? Yes. Would I have everyone going to GB waterboarded? No. Would I allow troops on the battlefield to waterboard someone? No. What if they did anyways? Punishment, but not excessive (no life in prison or some crazy sh1t).

IMO, you can't treat it lightly, but it shouldn't be completely off the table. If it's completely off the table publically but behind the scenes as I laid out it's being done EDIT: as need be, that's even better.

Chuck

And what makes you think you would get credible information from that torture?

I guarantee that if I torture you long enough I can get you to sign a statement saying you piloted one of the planes that flew into the World Traded Center towers but that obviously wouldn't be credible.

The absolute worst thing you can be while being tortured is innocent.
 

bononos

Diamond Member
Aug 21, 2011
3,936
190
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Enough with the lame slippery slope argument. A grant total of three people were waterboarded. It's not a big deal.

More than 3 people were waterboarded, it doesn't count the ones tortured inside the CIA black sites including a facility at Guantanamo and elsewhere. And the waterboarding is not the only torture available, there was a whole list which was approved- forced standing for long periods, walling, forced nudity, cold cell, slapping, etc. And all those could be combined to make the torture tougher. At least one death resulted from the cold cell/hypothermia torture.
 

woolfe9999

Diamond Member
Mar 28, 2005
7,153
0
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And what makes you think you would get credible information from that torture?

I guarantee that if I torture you long enough I can get you to sign a statement saying you piloted one of the planes that flew into the World Traded Center towers but that obviously wouldn't be credible.

The absolute worst thing you can be while being tortured is innocent.

I think there's confusion because you asked about torturing an "innocent person" and his answer did not assume that as a parameter.

I'm not really sure how "innocent person" gets introduced as a parameter anyway. An innocent person obviously shouldn't be tortured, or imprisoned, or even fined or slapped on the wrist. It's kind of a softball scenario.

A more thought provoking question is, should a person be tortured if there is good reason to believe that they have information which could prevent future death and destruction. There, the intent is not to have the person implicate himself in a crime - the statement would be inadmissible for that purpose anyway - but rather to prevent harm in the future.

Suppose you had good reason to believe that someone had information about the particulars of a plot to detonate a nuke in a major city. Would you authorize the torture of that person? Tougher questions make for more interesting answers.

- wolf
 

zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
111,828
31,302
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11 years since 9/11 and these trials are finally getting under way? The Nuremburg trials started about half a year after the end of WW2 in Europe and lasted ten months including sentencing. In almost every other area we have become faster and better at doing things but the law has taken a giant leap backwards.

Nuremburg is not comparable.

That involved nations at war, the conclusion of a war, and determining the fate of a country whose top leadership committed unspeakable acts agaisnt humanity.

Not specifically the intent of the trials, but you had to consider the fate of the losing nation, while determining how to punish the leaders of this nation--whom did not truthfully speak for the citizenry of that nation.

Here, we have no nations involved nor on trial. We have wars that are not concluded. We are not dealing with an entity that needs to be restructured and escorted back into the global economy as a strong, willing partner.
 

Lemon law

Lifer
Nov 6, 2005
20,984
3
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What's ironic is that in Reality, might almost always does make right. It's just the US doesn't use its might to get what we consider right, we half ass to satisfy the delusional that we won't be too mighty, and end up get not getting anything right.

I'm glad to see LL you're coming around to a more realistic way of thinking, that the US should stop F'ing around when we go to war. :thumbsup:

Chuck
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To chucky2 the clueless,

Where do you come up with the idea that the USA has ever fucked around when going to war, " as you claim, we should stop F'ing around when we go to war."

As I submit chucky2, when you say that, it simply proves how wrong you are.
As we can turn the question around, and ask, when has the US military fucked up and failed to deliver ever since WW2? And that might makes right question is a basically never!
When the war in Korea started, the US military promptly responded, stopped North Korean advances, as US military were soon well into North Korea. We can say the same in Vietnam, once LBJ escalated the war, from a US advisory role to a combat role, the US military owned all of South Vietnam in jig time,. The same thing can be said about Gulf War one and two, and Afghanistan too. As our US military have never once failed to deliver the bacon in jig time.

But you are clueless chucky2, simply because winning the war, is basically worthless, as the crucial step 2 of winning the peace becomes not the job of the US military and instead the job of US civilian politicians. Who have a long and consistent bi-partisan record of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Meanwhile chucky2, I would appreciate if you stopped trying to claim I agree with you, in statements like "I'm glad to see LL you're coming around to a more realistic way of thinking"
When nothing could ever be further from the case.
 

Darwin333

Lifer
Dec 11, 2006
19,946
2,329
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I think there's confusion because you asked about torturing an "innocent person" and his answer did not assume that as a parameter.

I'm not really sure how "innocent person" gets introduced as a parameter anyway. An innocent person obviously shouldn't be tortured, or imprisoned, or even fined or slapped on the wrist. It's kind of a softball scenario.

A more thought provoking question is, should a person be tortured if there is good reason to believe that they have information which could prevent future death and destruction. There, the intent is not to have the person implicate himself in a crime - the statement would be inadmissible for that purpose anyway - but rather to prevent harm in the future.

Suppose you had good reason to believe that someone had information about the particulars of a plot to detonate a nuke in a major city. Would you authorize the torture of that person? Tougher questions make for more interesting answers.

- wolf

Yes I absolutely would. You know what the difference between me and the "pro torture" people in this thread are? Its that I believe that I should stand trial for what I did, despite the lives I saved. It is worth breaking the law if the benefits vastly outweigh the punishment and in the case you describe they do. However, we are a civilized nation of laws and our laws and civility say that torture is absolutely unacceptable.
 

Nintendesert

Diamond Member
Mar 28, 2010
7,761
5
0
Link
Guantanamo hearing grows heated at mention of "torture"

Military defense Lawyers in this case - talk about doing your job.o_O




No, cleaning out porta potties by reaching into them and pulling out shit covered trash with only trash bags on your hands is still the worse job in the military, buddies stacked at the doorway so when you go running out to puke the next guy runs in to keep working so the john eventually gets cleaned out.
:colbert:
 

keird

Diamond Member
Jan 18, 2002
3,714
9
81
No, cleaning out porta potties by reaching into them and pulling out shit covered trash with only trash bags on your hands is still the worse job in the military, buddies stacked at the doorway so when you go running out to puke the next guy runs in to keep working so the john eventually gets cleaned out.
:colbert:

We used steel 55 gallon drums cut in half. Add a 50/50% mix of MOGAS and diesel. Stir the flames with a big stick 'til there's no more poop. But that was 21 years ago in an austere environment and was a step up from slit trenches.

This year one particular camp in Kabul needed 35 shit trucks daily just to keep up with the waste.
 
Feb 10, 2000
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I am not a fan of the military tribunals but would be hard pressed to suggest a viable, comprehensive alternative. Speaking as a former military prosecutor and defense attorney, I would just as soon have nothing to do with the tribunals.
 

chucky2

Lifer
Dec 9, 1999
10,018
37
91
And what makes you think you would get credible information from that torture?

I guarantee that if I torture you long enough I can get you to sign a statement saying you piloted one of the planes that flew into the World Traded Center towers but that obviously wouldn't be credible.

The absolute worst thing you can be while being tortured is innocent.

Obviously if we know the person is innocent we'd not be torturing them. Someone like KSM we know wasn't an innocent. You obviously conduct your interrogations with information you know/strongly think is right, and ask questions in a manner where you're checking the person on their answers. Just asking questions blind is a recipe for disaster.

I'm not for open ended torture just for the sake of torturing someone, it's to break their will to resist, not make them admit to something they didn't do/know about.

Context and information is everything here.

EDIT: And Yes, if I authorized something like that and it became public, which I'd do everything to prevent for the good of the country (not myself), I'd publically admit to being the person the buck stops here at. You've got to be able to have reasons good enough to tell the world, Yes, we did torture in this instance, for this <x minutes> of time, for this purpose, and Yes it was worth it, it prevented <x y z> or allowed us to nab <a b c> people. Would I show up at The Hague? Maybe, depends what context that's in...

Chuck
 
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chucky2

Lifer
Dec 9, 1999
10,018
37
91
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To chucky2 the clueless,

Where do you come up with the idea that the USA has ever fucked around when going to war, " as you claim, we should stop F'ing around when we go to war."

Where do I come up with the idea? Try Vietnam, Afghanistan, and GW2. Korea would partially be in there as well.

As I submit chucky2, when you say that, it simply proves how wrong you are.

You can submit whatever you'd like, it'll still be wrong.

As we can turn the question around, and ask, when has the US military fucked up and failed to deliver ever since WW2? And that might makes right question is a basically never!

What the F are you talking about here dude? This isn't a question about the US military, although one could certainly wonder WTF the US Military Leadership was thinking during Vietnam. This is a question about when the US et al goes to war. The US Military is just the first in, smashing sh1t up like they do best. If we look at just Afghanistan and GW2 specifically, it's a classic example of the US half assing because the people at home cannot stand to feel pain when going to war. They don't want 700k-1M troops deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq simultaneously, whether it's the actual people being there or the cost involved. They want things the Walmart and Starbucks way, cheap, quick, and instant gratification with everything being perfect, no bad news. Our Politicians know this, and hence have the military ask for whatever they think they need, as long as it fits into this public view. This is how you have generals resigning because they know WTF is going to happen once we go in, smash up their military, and then can't be everywhere in the numbers needed to dissuade their nonkowed populace; and because this isn't a WWII scenario, where pretty much every German male between 13-50 was already captured or killed, and their remaining civilians population was mentally beaten out of their war mindset, there's going to be plenty of troublemakers running free.

When the war in Korea started, the US military promptly responded, stopped North Korean advances, as US military were soon well into North Korea.

What??? What planet are you on dude? The US military was gutted after WWII. When NK attacked, they pushed deep into NK and we rushed military units in piecemail as stopgaps - units often times weren't even cohesive units. That you'd even state this as you've done shows you don't know d1ck all about military history. McA the prima donna got lucky (he was brilliant too though) with his Inchon landing, turning the tide of the war. Had they tried to slug it out back up the pen., Seoul would still be in NK hands likely (or we'd had bled a hell of a lot more than we did getting back there).

We can say the same in Vietnam, once LBJ escalated the war, from a US advisory role to a combat role, the US military owned all of South Vietnam in jig time,.

You are quite simply insane here. Insane. We owned the piece of ground we had people standing on, and in lots of cases, we didn't even own that. Just because you are in your base and there are no towns outside of your base or the town you border, doesn't mean you own everything to the next town 15k away. You can say you 'own' something when you can leave your base at night, and walk that 15k away without worrying you're going to disappear when you walk through the town, or get past town. Your Korea statement was crazy wrong, here you are insane wrong.

The same thing can be said about Gulf War one and two, and Afghanistan too. As our US military have never once failed to deliver the bacon in jig time.

The military tries its best with what it's given and the parameters it's allowed to work in. In modern times, Yes, our military is other worldly good at wrecking other countries defenses, especially when we don't have the limitation of jungle warfare as we had in Korea and Vietnam. We finally sort of agree on something.

But you are clueless chucky2, simply because winning the war, is basically worthless, as the crucial step 2 of winning the peace becomes not the job of the US military and instead the job of US civilian politicians. Who have a long and consistent bi-partisan record of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Yes, exactly. When you turn things over to State, and have them attempt to do what they're tasked with doing, State fails. And to be brutally honest, State was going to fail regardless of how F'd up State is because instead of having 10 troops on every corner, we've got 10 troops on one side of our base looking out 1/4 mile away at a town a mile deep and they can see 60 yards of it. All the while, the populace who we're trying to get to come around to our way of thinking, something that takes decades of commitment (see above for the patience span of the American public, which means the Political commitment span of our Politicians), is being bullied by those working against us at worst, and at best, our indoctrination/persuasion efforts are going no where/almost no where because we don't have the mental influence being imparted on the populace in part by our military being in their face in large #'s.

Meanwhile chucky2, I would appreciate if you stopped trying to claim I agree with you, in statements like "I'm glad to see LL you're coming around to a more realistic way of thinking"
When nothing could ever be further from the case.

I think it's pretty clear we don't agree on much, especially militarily.

Chuck
 
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ichy

Diamond Member
Oct 5, 2006
6,940
8
81
I am not a fan of the military tribunals but would be hard pressed to suggest a viable, comprehensive alternative.

I kind of wish the Constitution's ban on Bills of Attainder only applied to US citizens. That could solve this problem rather nicely.
 

dali71

Golden Member
Oct 1, 2003
1,117
21
81
I guessed wrong. :( I was going to say Commander-in-Chief.

I also guessed wrong:
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