Should civilized nations use "Enhanced Interrogation" techni

[kandrathe]

Thanks for those links Skan.

To the first, regarding democracy and dictatorship, I would echo his point made at the end; "The problem is not that Chavez is some regional menace who threatens real American interests, but that he is and ought to be almost entirely irrelevant to how we shape Latin America policy, but for some reason he has become a central figure in Washington’s approach to the entire continent." My concern is not that any one of these brutal thugs is a danger to the US, other than that we elevate their importance and help to validate their movement. I see the whole tug of war more as a mental struggle, rather than a physical one. The modern press who salivate to interview the Castros have quickly forgotten that these were men who showed no restraint in lining their political opponents up for firing squads. For me, to legitimize the Castro regime would be to defile the memory of thousands of victims whose only crime was resisting Castro.

To the second, when the President goes out of his way to repeatedly say things like, "I know there have been difficulties these last few years, I know that the trust that binds us has been strained, and I know that strain is shared in many places where the Muslim faith is practiced. Let me say this as clearly as I can: the United States is not at war with Islam." Meaning that when you couldn't trust us when we said that before, now because of Obama you can trust us when we say it.

The final article seems more to be making the argument that the question of torture is murky at best. It leaves me wondering where he really stands. I'm still pretty close to "never", but if there was that one slight chance of preventing a nuke from incinerating NYC, well, then, in that case I would keep my mouth shut. It's that same gut feeling I have about shooting an intruder meaning to harm my family, in that, it probably would never be the case that conditions would exist where I would need to do that, but would it be the case that it was the correct thing to do, then I would not hesitate to protect them with any means possible.