paulsol wrote:
Gbaji (and people like him) have to believe that waterboarding isn't torture and go to great lengths to try and convince others that it isn't torture.
And yet, prior to reports of its use (like 5 times in total) by the US, no one ever made any great effort to define waterboarding as torture. In fact, despite the practice having been reported as being in use by dozens of countries for as long as the UN has existed, the UN commission on torture routinely declined to include waterboarding among the list of interrogation techniques banned by said convention on torture.
Strange that this *only* becomes an issue after the US uses it. One might suspect that instead of defining something as torture and then punishing those who use it, some people defined waterboarding as torture after the fact and want to retroactively go after the US for its use.
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To admit to themselves that the US and its allies use torture would be to admit that their whole belief in the nobility of wars being fought in their name is misguided and anything but noble.
Lol. And by applying a retroactive label to something? What does that mean? I suspect it's someone who so desperately wants to attack something that they'll do anything to do so. Even commit a massive lie.
Where were all these people pushing to ban waterboarding prior to 2002? I'm sorry, but you lose credibility when you only care about something after its used in conjunction with something you already don't like. You don't care about waterboarding, and neither do 99% of those who make a big deal about it. You care about opposing the US in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and you adopt the position on waterboarding as a convenient means of doing so.
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After all, 'we' are supposed to be better than 'them'. Which is how the the slaughter is justified in the (simple) minds of its supporters.
Then why didn't "we" do anything to ban the use of waterboarding beforehand? Why did "we" allow other nations to use it for the entire time period the UN has existed without comment, and without action, and certainly without outrage?
You aren't acting on any high moral ground here, so how about you stop pretending you are?
They're totally making the argument that waterboarding is like something entirely unrelated, such as *************