Frank Gol:

I do not know a lot about you either Frank but I am sure if a Jihadist is ever able to immolate you or any of your family (I sincerely hope they are never successful) you may have second thoughts about throwing a bit of cold water over them and making their miserable lives as uncomfortable as possible. The terrorists are going to turn up the volume and it is only a matter of time before they are able to add things such as plutonium to their chemical concoctions.

Unless our security services get our support and not our criticism, which can only weaken their resolve, there will be successful terrorist attacks. There are a lot of Jihadists out there hell bent on doing us as much harm as possible.

Horus

"Question: Should the authorities torture the terrorist to discover its location?”

You're really twisting me arm matey. OK it would be YES in the ticking bomb scenerio painted. This is unrelated to the US' post 9/11 worlwide torture program which obtains vast amounts of old background intelligence from suspects long "renditioned" off the street.

Lets dwell on the tried and trusted British traditions of torture and revenge. On talking to former SAS officers who have undergone torture resistence training in Australia:

1. We probably have the necessary torturers.

2. It can take more than half an hour (may be days/weeks) to get the tortured to talk.

3. Death can precede talking :)

The US made the mistake of turning what everyone else calls torture into official, WRITTEN, PUBLIC, policy - to justify its mass campaign (in Guantanamo etc). Many Americans quietly agreed then (and agree now) with the spinoff of causing Muslims pain - in revenge for 9/11.

More "refined" countries (UK etc) removed torture from the statutes long ago. Torture policies or doctrine in these countries would no longer be written down. Oral briefing from someone of Colonel/Superintendent rank (varying from operation to operation) would probably be the go because it would be deniable for political and tactical reasons.

Summary execution of terrorist (shoot em before you need to capture em) is another unwritten policy in the UK - see planta's comment in http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=3791

Pete

Horus and others.

It is interesting to see how posters are keen to sidestep my scenario, but are unable to respond to it. Being a patient man, I an still waiting for someone to have the guts to respond.

I do believe that there are many people who seem unable to accept that there is no way that you will appease these terrorists, and that this is a war of extermination, as has applied untold number of times in human history.

It also seems to be difficult for many people to accept, as George Bernard Shaw remarked, that there has been no discernable moral progress in human affairs throughout history, and we are not about to see one now.

Contrary to what many may think, I am not in despair, but simply observing the usual working out of darwinian evolution, where the weakest goes to the wall, and the devil takes the hindmost.

With the failure of the world community to even recognise the underlying problem, overpopulation, I am looking to the four horsemen to provide the usual solution.

Plerdsus

Speaking as one "man" to another man I've responded man.

Can't you read or accept my words above?

Pete