CNN Poll: 45% of Respondents Urge *Justified* Torture of US Soldiers

[stopbush]

The question:

Is torture ever justified during interrogation?

Yes - 45%

No - 55%

vote here: http://www.cnn.com/

That is what those 45% who voted "Yes" intended, correct? What's good for the goose, and all...

[alcuno]

1. I'm sure some of the Iraqis would have preferred that to being

sexually humiliated and degraded. I think I'd rather be beaten.

[symbolman]

2. Maybe

these folks should re-read the Patriot Act...

[whistle]

3. These are many of the same people who believed that...

...Saddam and Iraq were behind the 9-11 WTC and Pentagon bombings. It seems now that 45% of the people are chimping Dubya by voting "Bring 'em on".

[KareBear]

5. This is the same 45%

that would drink the special Kool Aid. :D

[MrChupon]

4. I just saw this poll

I knew it wouldn't be where I wanted it to: I usually try and predict for CNN polls. I'm pretty good at it too. For this one I figured 80% NO. Wow, I guess I had too much faith in humanity.

[AgentLadyBug]

6. sigh.......

the gravest threat facing america today is its own people. fuck the repubicans for making my people so worthless. and fuck my people for going along with the republicans.

[napi21]

9. Try listening to some of the sallers on :Washington Journal

in the morning! I was shocked to hear some men were so willing to accept this a just part of being at war. (Yes, every one I hear was male.)

I've tried a few times to call in to that show but I don't have the patience to keep redialing so I've never gotten through. I would have loved to ask these people if they felt the same way when they saw the Marines dragged through the streets of Somalia, of the soldiers hanging from the bridges in Iraq?

We called these actions barbaric and inexcuseable. Why should we be allowed to do this to ANY other human being??

[Aunt Anti-bush]

7. 45% scare the living crap out of me!

I find it hard to believe that many people would support torture as a means of interrogation.

[amber dog democrat]

8. So its the Ends Justifies the Means again?

Ve haff vays of making you talk?

How can one be sure something extracted by means of torture is reliable anyway?

[AgentLadyBug]

13. lol - torture is known to be almost totally unreliable.....

as an information-gathering tool.... this has been known certainly for hundreds, and possibly thousands of years. the only reason people still do it is cruel sociopathy.... which apparently well-describes 1/2 of america.....

[newyorican]

10. I said it before, and I'll say it again...

These extra-chromasome, knuckle-dragging, followers of Alan "The Torturer" Dersowitless see little difference between the "ragheads" and "libruls".

Kinda cures one of most anti-gun sentiments (speaking for self only, in this case).

[AussieInCA]

11. should of been: Is torturing your neighbour justified during interrogation

wonder if the appologist would answer the same.

[stopbush]

15. How about "Is it OK to torture your kids to clear up disputes

on the school playground?"

[AussieInCA]

17. or rape your neighbours wife over that noisy lawn mower dispute

you could just go on and on and show how rediculous 'torture is justified' is.

[PurityOfEssence]

12. Sorta like religion: when you're good, it doesn't matter what you do

you're still good. People who are against us are obviously horrible people, so reciprocal horribleness--in fact pre-emptive ante-upping extremism--are all justified, and regardless how evil and monstrous we are in achieving our ends we're still good.

So sayeth 45% of the computer-literate sentient beings who watch the most liberal (ha ha, yet still true) of the three cable news networks.

(For the record, CNN is still solidly right-of-center, it's just that the friendly fascists at Fox and the military-industrialist flaks at MSNBCGE are even farther down the road.)

[ComerPerro]

14. Well, its typical American BS

They think its ok for us to torture people, but they don't approve when our guys are tortured. Suddenly they find it morally repulsive.

Personally, I find torture to be wrong all the time.

FReepers don't think like that, though. They don't realize that they are essentially saying that they approve of people torturing our troops.

But, hell, maybe they do. They are a sick lot.

[salonghorn70]

16. The CNN Poll

Here is what I said on another thread.

I think that some of you have misread the CNN question. The question is, "Is torture ever justified in interrogation?" Consequently, based on the wording of the question, if a respondent can think of one instance where it is justified and a million instances where it is not, then he would vote "yes." An example. What if an individual has information regarding the explosion of a nuke in NY City. Obtaining the info, will stop the plot. Justified? An example. What if an individual has information regarding the location of a hostage who is about to be killed. Obtaining the information will stop the killing. Justified?

I don't think that all of the people voting "yes" in this poll are saying that they approve of what happened in Iraq.

[AussieInCA]

18. sorry, but this poll is in context of what is going on now

there is most likely a lot of correlation.

[stopbush]

19. Au contraire, I think the *yes* voters think it's more than OK if

the Americans are the torturers. They didn't even think through the issue of reciprocal torture.

To arrive at your reading of what a yes vote *may* have meant requires a bit of deep thinking and even deeper spin. Wouldn't you agree that this question has been asked specifically in response to the facts emerging that Americans are torturing Iraqis? You don't really think that many - or any - of those who answered *yes* stopped and thought out the question via the prism you proffered, do you?

I doubt very much than any of the Iraqi *civilians* who have endured these tortures were planning anything on the scale of nuking NYC or killing some hostage. Most of these poor souls weren't even accused of anything tangible. They just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time...and ended up in the hands of the wrong people.

You're over-thinking this poll.

[flamingyouth]

20. I was completely bewildered by that

I don't know why shit like this continues to surprise me. It's not like I don't read the papers every day and see what people do to each other. It's sad, actually.:-(

[religiousleft]

21. Racism, Religious fervor and victim mentality

have combined to create an atmosphere where any abuse is justifiable. We can only hope that the american people will relize that asking otherwize decent men and women to paricipate in an evil and unjustified war of conquest quickly causes them to degenerate morally.

[MrPrax]

22. What about 'just for kicks'?

or coz you are a reservatist and you just got extended, so you have some fun to relieve stress

"Is Torture ever justified if your annoyed?"

Maybe you piss on Iraqis coz your drunk?

"Is Torture ever justified if your drunk?"

Maybe your just doing it coz you were told to and you got some cash or got a college education...

"Is Torture ever justified if you got money?"

Maybe just following orders...

"Is Torture ever justified if you were just following orders?"

The Nuremberg Trials also established the principle that "superior orders" could not be used as an affirmative defense by military and civilian officials.

Those individuals who committed these offenses may not plead as a defense that they acted for the state or merely followed the orders of their superiors.

The Nuremberg Trials established that a tribunal would only consider "superior orders" by way of mitigation of punishment.

The Nuremberg Trials held that Individuals were held personally responsible for conduct that breached international law.

However, the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg concluded that the "international community" could only punish such crimes if they occurred in pursuing a war of aggression.

Later tribunals went further and held that even if the victims were nationals of the "offending" (aggressing) state, or if the crimes had no direct relation to war, then the offense was punishable as a crime against humanity if the acts were so horrible that they shocked the conscience of humankind.

going on...
# Crimes against humanity:
Murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation and other inhuman acts done against any civilian population, or persecutions on political, racial or religious grounds, when such acts are done or such persecutions are carried on in execution of or in connection with any crime against peace or any war crime.
http://deoxy.org/wc/wc-nurem.htm


Adopted and proclaimed by General Assembly resolution 217 A (III) of 10 December 1948

Article 5.

No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

The United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment 1984

http://www.essex.ac.uk/combatingtorturehandbook/manual/1_content.htm


Oh well...the season finale of Friends, the OC and Fraser is coming up and Survivor is down to 5 all-stars...
All is well in the world...

How many MORE excuses?

[religiousleft]

24. the Hauge!

this is exactly the reason we need international law. No U.S. investigation of these abuses will go further than slamming some mope of a reservest who folded to the racist propoganda of the war machine for who he/she works and slapping the hand of his commander. At the very least Bremmer, Rumsfeld and Tennant should be interrogated about this material by UN or other authorites.

[Poiuyt]

23. Do you think the number would be the same if

the question was phrased letting people know that torture is a war crime under the Geneva Convention? Or does the Geneva Convention only apply to other countries?

[stopbush]

25. A few RW talking heads have already said "we're not at war, so

there are no war crimes. The war ended a year ago."

Convenient, eh?

[LeinesRed]

26. and this has what to do with the photos?

:shrug:

[Zinfandel]

27. So the same 45% would justify using torture on American soldiers..

for information?