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Thread: More than 1/3 of the US troops in Iraq says torture is acceptable

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    Default Re: More than 1/3 of the US troops in Iraq says torture is acceptable

    Quote Originally Posted by BigTex
    Compared to any other war these are hugely low lvl's from grunts (not officers). You should also read very carefully the questions asked. "would you torture terrorists to save lives?" I would hope most soldiers would be willing to go the extremes to save their comrades and the people in Iraq. If this number was any lower I'd even say we have a massive problem. And really, using the lancet's findings which they even admit were skewed for a high finding for political purposes is a poor idea.
    1. About the lancet study - well, that's why I used the low level bound as well as the high one, because I know it's been vehemently contested. Do you disagree with even the lower bound, of 150k ?
    I personally find even that 150k figure to be a lot, considering this was not initiated as a war of occupation, but rather as one of liberation.

    2. I'm not sure I follow your first sentence, can you clarify a bit ?
    Are you referring to the percentage of low level soldiers in Iraq, or just the chunk that was interviewed ?
    And I agree with you the way questions are formulated is always a very tricky issue.
    Like I said in my previous post, BigTex, I didn't base my comments exclusively on this article, I took into account the discussions we had a few months ago, with the "legalization" of torture for suspected terrorists (I don't recall the exact title of the article, but you may remember what I'm talking about).

    Again, read the conclusion of my previous post, about the huge differences in mentality among us. That's really the only conclusion I can draw. In my eyes, your opinion may be wrong, and in your eyes, my opinion may be wrong - but since there is no higher moral arbiter, we can never decide who's "right" and who's "wrong" (if that is even the case - perhaps we're both right, or wrong).
    Best we can do is agree to disagree.

    I would be interested to discuss (not in this thread, don't mean to derail it) why exactly some of us have such opposing views, and what are the factors that influenced us to feel/think the way we do (if that's a doable task to begin with...).

    EDIT: To clarify a bit, I find the soldiers' stance much easier to understand, given the situation they find themselves in - namely, at war.
    But I find it more difficult to understand why some of our fellow Orgahs (or at least the ones that are not involved in the Iraq war, if you really want to be pedantic about it) have a similar attitude.
    I'm not dissing it, I'm saying I don't understand why some people think/feel that way. And I'd like to understand, naturally.
    Last edited by Blodrast; 05-05-2007 at 21:00.
    Therapy helps, but screaming obscenities is cheaper.

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