21 June 2009

Doonesbury on Torture

In case you missed it ...

2 comments:

Allen said...

Many people believe torture is wrong. Good, bad or otherwise, torture has been proven to be effective. Where our former administration erred is in their belief that waterboarding is an effective form of torture to extract information. I would contend there are more effective torture methods to extract information, with at least one of these methods 100% psychological vs. how waterboarding is using physical torture. Let me explain . . . In 1909, before World War I, there were a number of terrorist attacks on the United States forces in the island of Mindanao in the Philippines, by Muslim extremists. General "Black Jack" Pershing was the appointed military governor of the Moro Province. He captured 50 terrorists and ordered them to be tied to posts for execution. Since all the prisoners were Muslim, he asked his men to bring two pigs and slaughter them in front of the prisoners. He then proceeded by dipping bullets into the pig’s blood. In the process he executed 49 of the terrorists by firing squad. Then, the soldiers dug a big hole in the ground and dumped in the terrorists’ bodies and covered them in pig’s blood and viscera. The last man was set free. For 42 years there was not a single Muslim attack anywhere in the world. His rationale was quite simple and effective. Since a radical Muslim is willing to give his life for his religion in a Jihad war, killing him would not make much difference. He would be seen as a martyr (shahada). But the General knew that all Muslims believe in eternal life after death with 72 virgins waiting for them in paradise. He also knew that those that embrace Jihad usually prepare themselves physically and spiritually in case they die in combat. Since the pig is considered forbidden food (haram) in Islam, Pershing introduced this variable to thwart their hopes to enter Allah’s kingdom. The pig’s blood automatically nullified any prior purification by contaminating their bodies. Whereas we don't have to kill all but one supposed terrorist, the interrogation technique is quite simple: follow General Pershing’s example and order a pig to be slaughtered near the prisoner. The blood of the animal run's freely toward the prisoner's feet. He will immediately lift his knees to avoid making contact with it. Fill a syringe with the pig’s blood and threaten to inject him in the arm. The prisoner will talk -- and quickly. Fair? Depends on your perspective. Effective? Extremely.

David said...

There's a piece going around email circles on Col Bud Day's torture at the hands of the North Vietnamese. Now that's torture. Big Al is correct though: use an effective method and don't apologize for it.