ToshoftheWuffingas wrote: |
What are right reasons? Would you consider it justifiable to discover the membership of dangerous groups? Do you think the Founders of the United States were mistaken in forswearing torture? Have circumstances changed in the modern world?
I'm sorry for the series of questions but you seem to espouse an unusual point of view and I wanted to clarify it.
No problem, although I don't think my point of view is that unusual. I know many that share it.
At a preliminary glance, I would say the "right reasons" would be to prevent loss of life. That's a rather nebulous set of standards, though, as knowing the membership of a dangerous group might be vital information to prevent loss of life, or it might just be a note on a report somewhere that isn't needed.
Knowing an attack is emminent, I would say it's justifiable to find out details about that attack such as when or where.
I don't believe the founders of the US foreswore torture in any way. They set rules for due process of citizens, and to prevent cruel and unusual PUNISHMENT, but coerced interrogation is not a punishment, it is an interrogation... and even if people are citizens, in a war on terror, they can be enemy combatants, and that greys the whole area, at least to me...