Tortured Logic
You can only find the truth with logic, if you have already found the truth without it.
-Gilbert Chesterton
I am very bullish on the value of logic in determining how a person should stand, if at all, with respect to a given issue. Having noted that, there remains for each and every person a certain set of axiomatic bases to establish for themselves and to which all reasonable positions may be traced. Most people call these bases their "values" and they form the foundation for all other personal beliefs: political, religious, etc. Most people are tolerant enough that they don't insist that the people around them emulate all of their values: some difference is not only acceptable but can be quite helpful…
Having said that, I will note that some values are so essential to society that persons who lack them are inherently problematic. An example would be those people who lack regard for others on such a basic level that we label them "sociopathic". There are other values that fall into this genre. The value that requires us to reject the torture of helpless people is one of them. If you don't hold such a value, if you don't consider the torture of helpless people unacceptable, then there is just something fundamentally wrong with you…
Keeping that in mind, what in the world are our leaders doing fighting for the right to treat people in a cruel, inhuman or degrading manner? Shouldn't any meaningful definition of torture extend to treating helpless people in a cruel, inhuman or degrading manner? Aren’t our prisoners helpless to protect themselves from us in every meaningful way?
Bush administration lawyers, fighting a claim of torture by a Guantanamo Bay detainee, yesterday argued that the new law that bans cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of detainees in U.S. custody does not apply to people held at the military prison.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/02/AR2006030202054.html?nav=rss_politics/administration
Such action is wrong. Period. They shouldn't be doing it. They shouldn't be fighting for the right to do it. They sure as he!! shouldn't be doing such things in the name of preserving the "American way of life". Since when has the "American way of life" included the goal of treating people in a cruel, inhuman or degrading manner? What a bunch of crap. They should be calling for transparency and inviting independent inspectors into our detention areas to prove to the world that we uphold the principals for which we claim to be fighting… We already have UN inspectors claiming we're torturing prisoners.
http://www.cbc.ca/storyview/MSN/world/national/2005/06/23/guantanamoabuse0623.html
Why make matters worse? If you're going to claim that your prisoners are being treated humanely and that you will continue to treat them humanely, it doesn't make sense to seek legal protection for the right to treat them inhumanely. Such action just throws fuel on the fire of claims that we're torturing our prisoners. Whatever you believe about how prisoners are actually treated at Guantanamo Bay, I think everyone should be able to agree that seeking this sort of legal protection just looks bad...
-Gilbert Chesterton
I am very bullish on the value of logic in determining how a person should stand, if at all, with respect to a given issue. Having noted that, there remains for each and every person a certain set of axiomatic bases to establish for themselves and to which all reasonable positions may be traced. Most people call these bases their "values" and they form the foundation for all other personal beliefs: political, religious, etc. Most people are tolerant enough that they don't insist that the people around them emulate all of their values: some difference is not only acceptable but can be quite helpful…
Having said that, I will note that some values are so essential to society that persons who lack them are inherently problematic. An example would be those people who lack regard for others on such a basic level that we label them "sociopathic". There are other values that fall into this genre. The value that requires us to reject the torture of helpless people is one of them. If you don't hold such a value, if you don't consider the torture of helpless people unacceptable, then there is just something fundamentally wrong with you…
Keeping that in mind, what in the world are our leaders doing fighting for the right to treat people in a cruel, inhuman or degrading manner? Shouldn't any meaningful definition of torture extend to treating helpless people in a cruel, inhuman or degrading manner? Aren’t our prisoners helpless to protect themselves from us in every meaningful way?
Bush administration lawyers, fighting a claim of torture by a Guantanamo Bay detainee, yesterday argued that the new law that bans cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of detainees in U.S. custody does not apply to people held at the military prison.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/02/AR2006030202054.html?nav=rss_politics/administration
Such action is wrong. Period. They shouldn't be doing it. They shouldn't be fighting for the right to do it. They sure as he!! shouldn't be doing such things in the name of preserving the "American way of life". Since when has the "American way of life" included the goal of treating people in a cruel, inhuman or degrading manner? What a bunch of crap. They should be calling for transparency and inviting independent inspectors into our detention areas to prove to the world that we uphold the principals for which we claim to be fighting… We already have UN inspectors claiming we're torturing prisoners.
http://www.cbc.ca/storyview/MSN/world/national/2005/06/23/guantanamoabuse0623.html
Why make matters worse? If you're going to claim that your prisoners are being treated humanely and that you will continue to treat them humanely, it doesn't make sense to seek legal protection for the right to treat them inhumanely. Such action just throws fuel on the fire of claims that we're torturing our prisoners. Whatever you believe about how prisoners are actually treated at Guantanamo Bay, I think everyone should be able to agree that seeking this sort of legal protection just looks bad...
posted by Minotaur at 4:42 PM
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