- Oct 6, 2008
- 125,094
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The way questions work PC, is we take turns. I answer one of yours, you then answer one of mine. Then I'll answer your question with the new conditions and offer one of my own (same question with more restrictive conditions). You don't keep adding conditions to change the nature of your question and demanding new answers.
If you don't want to play, that is fine with me.
I'll give you some freebies in hopes that you will be honest enough to provide some answers to my questions. Do you think you can manage that or is that an overly optimistic expectation?
You've reworded your question multiple times adding new conditions. I answered your initial question - which was pretty broad - with a "No". You got that part right?
Your new conditions have created multiple new questions:
One appears to be this: if an interregator "hits a wall" with a suspect, presumably in connection with saving a bunch of children such as in the Pakistan school bombing - would I agree to torture? This implies an ideal situation that seldom exists in reality. Theoretically (I'm anticipating you will add these conditions) - we *know* the person has the information without question and all other means have been exhausted, and it's a "ticking time bomb". Of course I would answer "yes".
Now...do you have the integrity to answer a question in return - one based on the above as it tends to occur in real life?
You have a group, like Boko Haran, holding a group of kidnapped children hostage. They might be killed, raped, sold - no one knows where they are or when their fates will be decided. You know that they have "presence" in a particular area, and a lot of influence on locals and recruits amongst them. You do a general sweep, based on informants information, sharing of gossip etc which may or may not be accurate. You come down to a handful of men, 3 maybe whom you think might know something but you aren't sure. You are pressured for time but it's not battlefield critical. All deny knowledge of the whereabouts of the children no matter how pressed and threatened. Information gained from torture is known to be unreliable (people will say what ever they think will stop the torture).
You have questions:
- do these men have any information of value in the first place?
- if they do, how can you get it? how will you know if it's accurate or if they are saying something they think you want to hear?
- How much time do we have and will the process take?
You have choices:
- continue with more conventional means (which includes the threat of violence, intimidation as well as attemtping to gain trust) in hopes that some one will relent and give out useful information;
- resort to torture and hope that you will get useful infomation;
- decide that they don't have useful information and let them go
Choices have consequences:
- if you continue with more conventional means, it might take more time but provide more accurate information but the children might die in the process
- if you choose torture you will get the information faster but it might not be accurate, it might send you on a wild goose chase and cost you valuable time and the children might die in the process
- letting them go - same consequences as #1, you will need to continue searching for someone who knows losing valuable time
What do you choose to do?
Why do you make that choice?
Those are questions with added conditions - kind of like yours.
Then, there is my original question:
...if you could save the 80-90 children slaughtered by the savages, and information could be gained either with or without torture but you couldn't be sure which would work - would you have acquiesced to torture?
Any answers PC or more dodging and weaseling?
So PoliticalChic - are you going to keep on dodging or show some integrity?
I've exposed you as an apologist for barbarity.
That was my intention.
There's nothing left to say, is there.