2005/11/29
a short and quick thought
I'd like to get my flag staked on an idea of mine.
There is all kinds of wailing and howling about torture creating terrorists. This is ridiculous.
Torture creates SOLDIERS.
Propaganda creates terrorists.
Torture could be a powerful motivator to seek retribution, but Jane Doe and her young children aren't the ones who are doing the torturing. Army guys are doing that. I expect that victims of torture to seek vengence, but not against the innocent. They thought themselves as innocent. Torture would cripple the efforts of terrorist trainers, by focusing the attention of the trainee in the wrong direction.
To make a terrorist, you've got to cloud a guy's mind, convince him of a paranoid malice, cut off any means of legitimate attack, create a horrid past, a worthless present, and a hopeless future. You have to lie to him. A lot.
There is all kinds of wailing and howling about torture creating terrorists. This is ridiculous.
Torture creates SOLDIERS.
Propaganda creates terrorists.
Torture could be a powerful motivator to seek retribution, but Jane Doe and her young children aren't the ones who are doing the torturing. Army guys are doing that. I expect that victims of torture to seek vengence, but not against the innocent. They thought themselves as innocent. Torture would cripple the efforts of terrorist trainers, by focusing the attention of the trainee in the wrong direction.
To make a terrorist, you've got to cloud a guy's mind, convince him of a paranoid malice, cut off any means of legitimate attack, create a horrid past, a worthless present, and a hopeless future. You have to lie to him. A lot.
# posted by Ecclesiastes @ 11/29/2005 02:19:00 PM 
