Prisoners, pick one: Bush waterboarding or Obama's "droning" - Granite Grok

Prisoners, pick one: Bush waterboarding or Obama’s “droning”

Waterboard or Drone KillingMuch is being talked about torture since US Senator Diane Feinstein decided to release the “CIA Torture” report – what happened during the Bush years right after 9/11 when over 3.000 of our fellow citizens were murdered in cold-blood by Islamic fanatics intent on hurting America.  Typical is the ideological split – protection vs we need to be nicer.  In other words, rough men doing what was necessary vs we CANNOT do this.  And then Obama’s policy of not capturing / interrogating them for information but just outright killing of targets (remotely, with “collateral damage” including innocents).  Andrew McCarthy puts a different spin on which people MIGHT choose IF they have to choose:

If you were to take everyone in America who is serving a minor jail sentence of, say, 6 to 18 months, and you were to ask them whether they’d rather serve the rest of their time or be waterboarded in the manner practiced by the CIA post 9/11 (i.e., not in the manner practiced by the Japanese in World War II), how many would choose waterboarding? I am guessing, conservatively, that over 95 percent would choose waterboarding.

Now, if you take the same group of inmates and ask them whether they’d prefer to serve the remainder of their time or be subjected to Obama’s drone program (where we kill rather than capture terrorists, therefore get no intelligence from the people in the best position to provide actionable intelligence, and kill bystanders — including some children — in addition to the target), how many would choose the drone program? I am guessing that it would be . . . zero.

Waterboarding over being outright killed?  Remember, some members of our military undergo SER training and waterboarding (last I remember) of them is part of that course (for that could happen if you cannot successfully evade detection or escape.  Me?  Well, put it this way – a waterboarding session may SEEM like forever but a dirt nap courtesy of a drone kill IS forever.

 

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