Debating Torture

The Daily Show hosted Cliff May from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies the other night, and their talk about torture ran so over the allotted time that TDS Website is hosting the whole interview. It was a great debate and like commenters and the participants themselves say, it’s sad that this is only being done on Comedy Central and not a “real” news outlet.

My personal moral compass is built on “do unto others…”, therefore my view is that even though it was only done to three “high-value” detainees, our actions were torture and therefore wrong. Period. Instead of spending scads of cash building the next giant weapons system or closing Guantanamo while rendering suspects to Bagram (necessarily reactive methods), we should be investing that money in intelligence, language training, and other preventative measures.

Also noted:
May’s point that many American’s haven’t read the torture memos. You can here.
If you’d like to read the Geneva Conventions you can do so here.
The specific section on detainee treatment is here.
That section with commentary, including the critical to me line, “each individual is desirous of the treatment corresponding to his status and can therefore judge how he should, in turn, treat his fellow human beings.”