Reply #25: It's never OK, and here is why

[Warpy]

First, it never works. It becomes a guessing game guessing which lies will make the torment stop, hoping to issue some random BS that your torturers want to hear.

Second, although psych studies have shown that many people are quite willing to inflict pain on strangers once they've been given permission to by an authority figure, it tends to brutalize the tormentors even more than the tormented. Do we want people like that to be unleashed?

Third, and most important, we, as a nation, decided a very long time ago that we would stick to the Geneva Conventions and avoid torture because that is who WE are. It has nothing to do with who THEY are and doesn't depend on any set of hypothetical circumstances. That standard saved many lives in WWII, as German soldiers would find Americans to surrender to for humane treatment, rather than fighting to the death to avoid being tortured.

Think about that. Think very hard. Then understand that what the Bush gang are doing should lead to their trial, conviction, and imprisonment. The abandonment of the Geneva Conventions and the destruction of an international reputation that took over 100 years to build is their biggest crime of all.