A pity that the article, even though presenting lots of rational thought, tended to promote "gut-feeling" over rationality.

It is hardly rational to prepare a plan of action based on information obtained under extreme duress - the answers given are totally unreliable. No front-line batallion commander worth his salt would endanger his troops that way. And no leader of any other branch of society who is worthy of his/her position would rely on such information.

Demeaning our society by matching some of the worst habits of an opponent might give some individuals a glow of satisfaction. The price for that will be increased difficulty in combating terrorism

Do you think that the passengers on the planes involved in 9/11 faced torture,how would you feel if you know that you are going to die in a horrible death never to see loved ones or family again,half of the passengers would have died before the impact of shock or heart attack,etc,etc.
If a terreriost suspect was in cusody and he new plans of a plot to kill many innocent Australians somewhere in this counrty,i would do things to him that would make the devil himself sick,i would torture untill he became numb,all to obtain details TO SAVE INNOCENT AUSTRALIANS'
Think about that the next time little children are killed.

Al Bundy - how would you know:
1 - the person you have in custody knows about the supposed plot, and
2 - the information provided under torture is reliable
In committing torture you are no better than your "terrorist"

As i said tell that to the parents of lost kids and familys and freinds of loved ones.
When are you selfish libratarains going to crawl back under the rock from which you came.

That still doesn't explain how torture is going to produce the result you expect.

With you Rossco on this one, and with a post name like Al Bundy, why should you be taken seriously? You can scream all you like about children being victims of terrorism/war/serial killings, like adults, they have no say in what they've been caught up in. It all sucks. Torture is for sick humans doing a torture/maybe murder, it can never be justified from any angle by a govt. If the human being doing it (on the ground) wants to go there, well that's another story. Whether it be a career path in the armed services or your own little thing. Not on my resume honey!

I really, really wanted to torture and slowly kill the Anita Cobby killers nearly 20 years ago, just for the question "why?" a) I wasn't given access to them' two)they are moldering away nicely in jail and; three)it wouldn't have changed anything except my life. Hers was gone anyway. I don't take torturing lightly at all, I just don't think you can agree with it on a "state / country basis against "other people" and then bitch about it happening to oneself, if one is in the wrong circumstance. The beauty about being a human is that we should all afford ourselves the same rights, criminal stuff included. But torturing? it's tempting. But gutter stuff. I'd like to think that, as a race, we are trying not to stoop to that low toward any individual. It is within us all to choose what level we feel justified in stooping to. If we accept torture of any human, either in an individual or "war" situation, we are just buying into the history that allows us to keep "morally" repeating our barbarianism toward our own race. Hardly enlightened. Condoning state torture is but a footstep away from turning your back upon a murder and doing nothing about it because you won't be called as a witness because it's state sanctioned. Hope it's not you or me