You're probably thinking of the "International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights", which the United States is not party to. And regardless of your opinion on the UN, the US signed and ratified the treaty. Even without factoring in treaties, US domestic law prohibits torture as well.

 

That's what I was referring to. :thumb: The way it was explained to me was that it was part of the Human Rights document. The first so many were one thing, and the second set were the economic, social, and cultural ones.

wonder if anyone of them were waterboarded?

 

We have lost some moral ascendancy.

 

I agree.

When we started justifying killing unborn babies, not when we started waterboarding.

Regardless of whether it's a law or not, I have no problem with the U.S. or any other country using methods of torture on prisoners or suspected terrorists.

 

Which is fine, you don't have to agree with laws. My point isn't that we shouldn't torture people because it's against the law, though that is part of it, but that the philosophical underpinnings of our country (think Bill of Rights) are applicable to all humans or are not applicable to any.

Which is fine, you don't have to agree with laws. My point isn't that we shouldn't torture people because it's against the law, though that is part of it, but that the philosophical underpinnings of our country (think Bill of Rights) are applicable to all humans or are not applicable to any.

 

:thumb: That's the jist of it. It has been mentioned before, but people are outraged if American is tortured, but find it acceptable for us to torture.

 

Now, don't get me wrong (and I assume Habib would agree with me), I am certainly outraged if an American is tortured and I hope that we would go after the captors. I also recognize that there are different degrees of torture (tortured to death & tortured by methods such as waterboarding, for example). However, neither is right, and the unethical actions of others do not justify unethical actions by us.

 

In a more general sense, the ends do not justify the means- and, even moreso in this scenario, when interrogation & torture could just as easily lead to lies as truth.

...................

 

So, torture, according to you, is what, exactly? The common definition (as evidenced above) is “the act of inflicting excruciating pain, as punishment or revenge, as a means of getting a confession or information, or for sheer cruelty.”

 

 

Frankly, I feel tortured reading this thread.