Torture

To me, the whole debate about the way we've been treating detainees is wrongheaded.

The United States should not torture its prisoners. Period. We should treat them with respect and due process- it is the way in which we treat our worst enemies that shows the world our true colors.

I don't care if you're a member of al Qaeda, the Taliban, or the insurgency of Iraq. If the US captures you, you should be treated with human dignity, because the US is a country that is founded on the principles of human dignity.

Now, if someone were to show me a study that proved that using harsh interrogation techniques yielded substantially more truthful information from a detainee, I would reconsider- reconsider- my position. But there's been no such proof. As a matter of fact, there's been the opposite- most "experts" who've testified about the effectiveness of torture claim that it only causes the detainees to make up "facts" to stop the pain.

So, should we kick the shit out of people because we're mad? Nope. In my view, America is a country so awesome that even when we capture our greatest enemies, we're able to overcome our base human emotions and still treat them as humans.

Disagree? Please, if you do, let me know. I'm open to facts on this issue, but so far, I've heard none that say that torture is productive.