Download - Morality Of Waterboarding

MORALITY OF WATERBOARDING

• THIS SET OF CHARTS TAKES A LOOK AT THE MORALITY OF WATERBOARDING TERRORISTS.• SOME SAY: “AMERICA MUST NEVER STOOP TO THE LEVEL OF ITS ENEMIES”• SOME SAY: “WHAT IF YOU ARE THE DECISIONMAKER AND YOU MUST DECIDE IF WATERBOARDING A TERRORIST MIGHT SAVE 10,000 AMERICAN LIVES.”• YOU BELIEVE YOU ARE A MORAL PERSON. WHAT’S YOUR DECISION ?

MORALITY OF WATERBOARDING.TOPICS COVERED.

• WATERBOARDING – SOME FUNDAMENTALS. MORALITY OF WATERBOARDING – A BALANCED LOOK.• ASSESSING THE MORAL BALANCE.• CONCLUSIONS.


PRIMARY REFERENCE FOR THIS MATERIAL:

“When Is It Moral to Sacrifice the Safety and Lives of Americans?”, Raymond S. Kraft, www.familysecuritymatters.org , Dec 10, 2007


• WATERBOARDING OF TERRORISTS HAS BEEN RAISED AS A MORAL ISSUE. THIS NEEDS A BALANCED LOOK.• TERRORISM IS A KILLING OF INNOCENTS. THE MORALITY OF GAINING INTEL TO PREVENT SUCH ATTACKS SHOULD BE THOUGHTFULLY EXAMINED. • ASSESSING THE MORAL BALANCE IS A WEIGHING OF ACTIONS AND CONSEQUENCES. • PREVIEWING THE CONCLUSIONS GIVEN HERE:

• THE MORALITY OF WATERBOARD’G MUST WEIGH: POSSIBILITY OF LIVES SAVED VS DISCOMFORT• THAT “WATERBOARD’G IS ‘TORTURE’ ” IS DEBATABLE • TERRORISTS HAVE FORFEITED THEIR MORAL RIGHT TO ULTRA-HUMANE TREATMENT• WATERBOARDING, UNDER LIMITED APPLICATION, IS ARGUABLY A MORAL ACTION


At the top of the news this past week (early Dec. ’07) is the story that the CIA destroyed, in 2005, some videotapes of its interrogations of terrorists.

With the story conveniently breaking just before the January primaries, the timing for political effect is suspect. Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) accused the CIA of a cover-up: "The agency was desperate to cover up damning evidence of their practices."


SIMULATION OF WATERBOARDING

A technique in which the Terrorist is strapped to a board, tipped head-down, his face covered with a cloth, and water poured over his face. This induces a drowning reflex, panic, as the body senses that it is in imminent danger. It does not actually drown the terrorist, it does not inflict severe pain or any permanent injury.


• WATERBOARDING – SOME FUNDAMENTALS MORALITY OF WATERBOARDING – A LITTLE PHILOSOPHY• ASSESSING THE MORAL BALANCE• CONCLUSIONS


SOME PHILOSOPHICAL UNDERPINNINGS Part 1:“The Social Contract, the Civilizational Contract, as conceived by Locke, Rosseau, and other Enlightenment philosophers of the 18th century, whose thought profoundly influenced Jefferson's Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution, is the implicit social and cultural agreement by which most men, and most women agree to treat each other with decency and civility, in exchange for the expectation that others will treat them with reciprocal decency and civility.”

Raymond Kraft, op cit


SOME PHILOSOPHICAL UNDERPINNINGS Part 2:In contemporary contract law, we can invoke the terms of a contract only so long as we have not breached them. Once we breach a contract, we can no longer expect or demand the benefit of the contract.

When a member of an organization like Al Qaeda takes up terrorism, they breach the Social/Civilizational Contract, by committing deliberate, premeditated atrocities against innocent people, in the pursuit of their own political or religious ambitions.

Once they have breached these Contracts they become outlaws, outside the protection of natural law. By refusing to treat others with decency and civility, they lose any moral claim to be treated with decency and civility themselves, and they no longer have any moral standing to expect that they should not be waterboarded.

Adapted from Raymond Kraft, op cit


Is waterboarding "torture" ? From Webster: “TORTURE” :

1. The infliction of extreme pain on one held captive, as in punishment, to obtain a confession or information, or to deter the action of others 2. Intense physical or mental suffering. 3. Something that causes severe pain."

• DO you believe infliction of momentary panic (not "extreme pain") by waterboarding meets this definition?• Uncomfortable? Unpleasant? Panic-inducing? Yes, but torture ? • PLEASE HOLD YOUR THOUGHTS A MOMENT.


SEVER LIMBS

REMOVE EYE

TORCH SKIN

IRON TO SKIN

MORALITY OF WATERBOARDINGNOT PRETTY - - BUT IT DOESN’T KILL

- - AND IT SAVES LIVES


• WATERBOARDING – SOME FUNDAMENTALS MORALITY OF WATERBOARDING – A LITTLE PHILOSOPHY• ASSESSING THE MORAL BALANCE• CONCLUSIONS


WHEREDO YOUPUT YOUR WEIGHTS ?


• WATERBOARDING – SOME FUNDAMENTALS• MORALITY OF WATERBOARDING – A BALANCED LOOK• ASSESSING THE MORAL BALANCE• CONCLUSIONS


THE CONCLUSIONS:• THE MORALITY OF WATERBOARD’G MUST BE WEIGHED AS: THE POSSIBILITY OF AMERICAN LIVES SAVED VS ENEMY DISCOMFORT• THAT WATERBOARD’G IS “TORTURE” IS DEBATABLE.• TERRORISTS HAVE FORFEITED THEIR MORAL RIGHT TO ULTRA-HUMANE TREATMENT• WATERBOARDING, UNDER LIMITED APPLICATION, IS ARGUABLY, A MORAL ACTION. E.G., WHEN IT IS APPLIED AGAINST TERRORISTS TO SAVE INNOCENT LIVES.


THE END