I said I didn't have a problem wateboarding domestic TERRORISTS. I said nothing about being suspected of just any crime.
Ok help me undertand. Are you saying you would only waterboard domestic terrorists that have been convicted? Or are you saying you would waterboard suspected domestic terrorists, but not waterboard for any other crime.
In either case, you seem to have an extreme disregard for the 8th Amendment of the Constitution which guarantees that citizens (and domestic terrorists are citizens by definition or they wouldnt be domestic) are protected against cruel and unusual punishment.
Would you therefor advocate abolition of the 8th amendment?
Because that is the only way I can see how you are going to get around the whole "cruel and unusual" thing.
What honor is it when our military has both hands tied behind their back (not just waterboarding issues) and still expect to fight the enemy?
You are broadening the argument beyond the scope of this thread. And I don't particularly see how our military has had both hands tied behind its back. Petreaus has gotten just about everything he wanted, and so has the CIA, including permission to waterboard from the president.
What good is honor if we're not here to live to defend it or what's left?
What good is life if we have no honor. If we have to become savages to fight savages, we have accomplished nothing... other than we have turned into the very thing we were trying to defeat.
As far as we have come since we started to colonize America, have you really lost faith in our Republic?
My comment that prompted the above statement was in regard to slippery slope, or the idea that the government will expand any power it is given. Do you disagree with this? When income tax started, I believe the maximum rate was less than 10%. Now its about 38%. When Medicare was started, benefits were moderate. Now look at the Medicare Drug program. When the federal government was given power over education, they became massively intrusive in what should have been a local issue. My point is, of course, that any time we give government more power, or special power, politicians and bureaucrats will tend to expand that power beyond what was originally intended.
I have not lost faith in the Republic, but I have lost faith in our politicians and bureaucrats, many of whom are power hungry authoritarians.
And what good then does it do to put it on paper to outlaw it? Do you trust a would-be criminal to obey our laws?
Do you have children? Have you ever asked them to do something, and they still did it anyway? If so, what was the point of telling them not to do it in the first place? I mean, they aren't going to obey your rules, so why have them. Do you just let them run amock?
Of course not. We have rules to keep people in line. If there are at least rules against something then there should at least be some degree of fear that prevents them from immediately breaking the rules.
Why have laws against murder? After all, many people dont obey the law.