In todays day and age, where terrorism is a plague spreading across the world, strong measures are the call of the hour. If torturing one terrorist is going to save thousands of lives, so be it.

The answer is obvious. We're talking about LA here. Let 'em burn.

HOPE. CHANGE!!!

Obama. Obama. Obama. Obama.

You know me.  I believe wrong is wrong in this case.  I do not believe in torture for whatever reason.  Call me naive... :)

@ProfessorTom - ahhhh, you crack me up!

And yeah, I don't understand when it became okay for terrorists to fly planes into buildings but not okay for us to 'torture' the masterminds behind it in order to prevent further attacks.  I'm just not too good at this math.  Nevermind that the same people in Congress now were mostly the same people in Congress then and they were all okay and aware with what was going on post-9/11.  Most disturbing to me is we have a President that is going to question and change the definition of 'torture' and go back and prosecute a previous administration for doing their job.  How far back will he go, because if he's going to start changing definitions, is any single administration safe from anything?  The whole thing just pisses me off.  America = sitting duck.  It's not a matter of if anymore, it's when.

It's one of those Dirty Hands situations, like the one where you have to choose which way the train is going to go, to kill five people or one... And if you don't act, it'll kill the five...

Basically, a moral dilemma. I mean, honestly, I'm glad I don't have to be the one to decide, lol.

I'm a consequentialist, though. So there's no good answer to give, for me... I think that in this case, they were perfectly justified in torturing this man. However, if it were an innocent who had no information to give, as has also often been the case, then I'd think that's wrong. It all depends on the end result.

@DirtyAndShaken - You don't know what you're talking about. Obama has a very effective interrogation plan as featured here. (NOTE: You will need Windows Media Player [WMP]) to listen.

It is stupid base general policy on the particular results of a single case. Approaches like torture needs to be assessed wholistically-- their likely benifits versus their general disadvantages and harms.

I see your point here and as much as I'm conflicted about the whole issue, I still believe that the end should never justify the means.  Torture is not okay ever.  It kills me to say that because I guess I always thought that killing one to save ten thousand would be worth it . . . but you just can't make exceptions to a rule like that.  No torture.

@ProfessorTom - //The answer is obvious. We're talking about LA here. Let 'em burn.//

You sound like a rabid elephant moaning to be put down.

@AreYouThereGodItsMeEmilyC - I'm totally on your side. Do you know how happy it would have made the rest of the country to see 3,000 people in LA burn in World Trade Center II? Good times that. Just think of all the marshmellow and weine roasts that could have been had. It would have been a family event!

HOPE. CHANGE!!!

Obama. Obama. Obama. Obama.

@huginn - Since when has anyone cared about L.A.?

@rachelserine - Long ago I did an entry on why torture is wrong, and that the ticking time bomb scenario is a false argument. So maybe we are both naive

Maybe we should have asked the UN to issue a few more "binding resolutions" instead.  Hey, just becuase the first 13 resolutions didn't do jack-didly, there's no reason to believe maybe the 14th one won't.  Have some faith.

@ProfessorTom - Apparently, not someone who has a GOP pin shoved through his small intestines.

@blonde_apocalypse - Maybe we should ban murder, war, terrorism and all bad things on earth. Yeah that'll do it.

@huginn - I don't get it. I agree with Our Dear Leader Supreme Dictator for Life His Royal Majesty Lord Barack Obama The Most Merciful when he says that we shouldn't torture people and you accuse me of being a bigoted Republican? Last time I checked, Our Dear Leader was a Democrat. Did he pull a Jumpin' Jim Jeffords?

@trunthepaige - I'd like to read that... :)

@blonde_apocalypse - HOPE. CHANGE!!!!

Obama. Obama. Obama. Obama.

@huginn - You got to admit LA is one ugly city. Would we really miss it? It's not as if they were taking out some place nice, like Seattle.

@trunthepaige - Can I ask how it's a false argument?  I would love for that scenario not to be feasible.  LOL.

@rachelserine - Let me dig that up, its back about three years ago. Back then I started off my entries with whatever joke I had heard that day and rarely titled anything. 

@AreYouThereGodItsMeEmilyC - My opinion was that for that scenario to work. You needed to know there was a ticking bomb and that this guy knew were it was. Otherwise you did not know enough, to know when you were being lied to.  That seemed so unlikely. In my eyes it seemed more likely that such interrogations would only need to false information

@ProfessorTom - //...and you accuse me of being a bigoted Republican?//

I don't think anything you've sputtered was "bigoted."

But it must be horrible: being a political malcontent desperately choking on his handfuls of sour grapes. Don't worry. three more years and you guys get another shot.

Or, to distill the debate in its simplest terms, if I can save ten thousand lives by causing someone momentary pain, am I justified in doing so? At one point we could get around the debate by claiming that "torture doesn't work". But clearly in this case, it did.

I'm not sure what the answer is.

@ProfessorTom - That might actually work.  I'd take a stinging insect or bamboo shoots under my fingernails over THAT any day!  Is that a Rush parody?  Sounds like his style.  I love it.