Homestar Runner Wiki Forum

With all the talk about the CIA's secret prisons where torture is rumored to take place, plus Abu Ghraib last year, and the allegations of inhumane conditions at Guantanamo Bay, I thought I'd get people's opinion on this. What do you think of torture? Should it be allowed under any circumstances?

Personally, I believe that physical torture should not be permitted under any circumstances, but if psychological torture will prevent a terrorist attack and won't leave the prisoner maimed or dead or crazy, it should be permitted. However, this would only be in cases where we know they know something and we need to know it to save the lives of civilians.

So, what do you think?

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beep beep I'm a Jeep

Yeah, my thoughts on this subject pretty much echo yours. I don't see any real gain to be had from torturing anybody other than to get vital life-saving information out of them, regardless of whether or not they've practiced torture on others themselves. So I went with option #2, I guess.

Your sentiments are the same as mine. Option #2 like-the-rest.

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the logic in torturing someone only when we feel it will save lives is flawed. what if the person we are torturing really doesnt know anything about what they are talking about, and is killed in the process? an innocent man to be tourtured only because he was on the scene before everything went down, her he was spotted carrying a backpack that looks like the Backpack used in subway bombings. its wrong to torture physically, for that leads to Death and a sad Litle letter from the Vice President sent to the mother of John Doe Saying "Your boy was a terrorist, he is lying dead in a casket for you to pick him up and burry him." it sickens me when people say "Torture Him, He Knows what we want", for a man who is tortured would do anything to make the pain stop, and even Lie, making up fake things and places. its just like what happend in the Witch trials, they would torture anyone who was Accused of being a witch, and was tortured to the point that they would say anything just to get the pain to stop. think about it, guys.

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Mental torture, COLA, mental torture only. Things like sleep deprivation or really loud and irritating sounds played for 24 hours at a time. Maybe bright lights 24/7.

I'm not saying the government should be entitled to kill anyone during an interrogation-that's the kind of thing we're trying to stop-but I do think that if we are absolutely positive that someone knows something, and we need them to tell us, that certain methods might be necessary.

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beep beep I'm a Jeep

well, why dont you change the name of this thread to "phycological Torture" or something so noone gets confused.

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The first option sums up my answer pretty darn good. Torture=Not good. Forgiveness=Very good.


PREPARE FOR ARGUEMENT

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I don't have much problem with torture (right up to the very limit of the Geneva Conventions) if we know it will get information that will save lives and prevent futher terrorist attacks (and deaths of innocent people).
The problem is that if we use torture we should expect it to be used against our own troops (which is the only thing that I have against torture, that if we use it on "them", "they" will use it on "us"). That's not really an issue, though, as, right now, we are fighting people that openly violate pretty much EVERY article of the Geneva Conventions. I'm not saying I advocate violation of the Geneva Conventions, just that we really don't have to worry about how our troops are treated being based on how we treat the other side. If we took the people in Camp Rhino and Abu Grahb to Disney World every day, foreigners captured in Iraq would still be treated inhumanely.

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If you can't fix it with a hammer, you have an electrical problem.

I think (as if anybody cares) that all torture should be illegal, even mental torture, I tried that chinese water torture by just laying on ground with slow driping water from a leaking milk carton filled with water(yes a very crude way to do it), after a while it was okay, acting like "I dont see why people think this is torture", but after 10 minutes of so it was like "god this is driving Me insane!", seeing even drops of water is as annoying as getting punched in the nose continuously.
(and yes I wanted to what would happen just because of that myth busters episode).

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die spelling nazis!

Torture should be illegal, as in fact it is. As for extenuating circumstances, where the torture involved might save lives, the person who actually commits the torture should still have to face consequences, despite the circumstance. It will at least hold them accountable and force them to consider whether the circumstance is worth their own suffering. Without such a system of accountability, all it would take would be for someone to claim that they thought that lives were at risk, and they could get away with anything.

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Um... the purpose of Chinese Water Torture is to drive the crazy while waiting for the next drop, since the time between drops is continually expanded. The point isn't to have a steady stream of drops annoying you.

Eh. I think.

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Well, the thing that the MythBusters proved was that it was not the dripping water, but rather the bonds and chains holding the person under it that did it.

My opinion on torture is like Jitka's. Physical torture should never be practiced. And, I think mental torture would be all right in cases of extreme emergency, but never used otherwise. I really hate the concept of torture.

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What if you torture someone and he or she gives you the wrong information? Then how will it work?

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It isn't like this came as a total suprise, it's been happening in the world since the beginning of time. It's only natural that one of the most powerful nations in the world has some secret prisions. We've been seeing this in Tom Clancy novels for almost 20 years now.

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RIP Nathan "Buz" Buzdor

There's some real conflict here for me. ONe part of me says "Torture is wrong, and no human being, no matter how mislead, deserves something like that." The other part says "Why not, if it helps to save innocent lives?"

I'm leaning toward the one that spoke up first, just because that's the little angel on my shoulder speaking. But I also saw A Clockwork Orange recently. A movie isn't a decent explanation of my opinions, but when you turn an antagonist into a protagonist like that, it really makes you feel sorry for the person being tortured, no matter what atrocities they commited.

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"I'm a Barbie girl.... in a Barbie wo-o-orld...."

Ugh.

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So, so you think you can tell Heaven from Hell, blue skies from pain. Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail? A smile from a veil? Do you think you can tell?

I think it should be used if the torturers are 100% sure that the person going to eb tortured knows something. I'm not sure the extent of what we can do with technology yet, but if there's a way to tell if someone is golding something back (like part of the brain does soemthing when it knows not to say something) then they should torture them. Maybe mental torture first, but if time is a big factor, pyisical torture is the best bet. Something undoable is better, if the tortured turns out to be innocent (but they shoudln't turn otu tpo be, as they should be 100% sure before torturing them)

I've gotten my vewis on this from 24, as it shows you different vewis of torture and its pros and cons.

Okay if you must know I am a bit obsesive compuslsive(if you didnt see that in
my past posts)so I can get annoyed by little things, so with the constant driping of water is drives Me insane cause it gets very irateting to the point that I would rather be punched in the face than stay there, I didnt mean it herts(bad spelling, deal with it), only annoys, so dont say that I am full of crap when I actully did it.

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die spelling nazis!

oh so you mean like play Backstreet Boys Really loud all day? That would get me to crack in no time

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Wow, It's been like three or 4 years since I've last been here