SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM: The vice president is suggesting that there was good information obtained, and I’d like the committee to get that information. Let’s have both sides of the story here. I mean, one of the reasons these techniques have survived for about 500 years is apparently they work.
ALI SOUFAN: Because, sir, there’s a lot of people who don’t know how to interrogate, and it’s easier to hit somebody than outsmart them.
–source (YouTube)
I can think of a number of things humans have been doing for 500 years or more that don’t work and shouldn’t be done, not only because they don’t work, but they are also morally repugnant. It’s a shame that Senator Graham thinks just because humans have been doing something for a long time it works and is also obviously a right and good thing to do.
Ali Soufan’s reply was priceless, and truer words have rarely been spoken.
When one is as big a sissy as the senator, one is always grasping about for tough guy imagery. It’s hard maintaining support while constantly battling the snickering and innuendo just beneath the surface in a hard line state such as South Carolina.
Also, I’m sure the senator has an abiding interest in the overt sadomasochism which is part and parcel of the whole torture thing.
I’ve been shocked during some online conversations with people I know pretty well to find so many people who think they could find excusable reasons to torture someone or who support the idea that torture is something that should and could be used. It has me rethinking how I feel about some of these folks.
The bottom line on torture is that it doesn’t matter if it works or doesn’t (and it really doesn’t – not like on TV), it’s one of those things that shouldn’t be done and can’t be excused. Period. Full stop. Just not done in modern society, no matter if “the other guy” does it or that it’s been around forever. Slavery has been around forever too, and I think we all pretty much agree it’s not a good thing to ever do and should be stopped. But torture? Oh no … we might NEED to torture someone. :rolleyes:
Soufan’s reply though was perfect. It is easier to hit someone than outsmart them. Hitting doesn’t always get you want you want though, now does it?
With all this torture stuff coming out now, it’s as if my worst nightmares, the stuff I was ranting about on the subject or the last 8 years, that all of it and more is probably true. America has totally broken it’s moral compass. We no longer have the high ground at all.