Torture

[nihil]

Hmmmm,

The original post was:

Torture and torture tactics have been in the news extensively lately. Guantanamo Bay (Gitmo) has been a contentious issue for years. We face the precipice of oblivion in many ways... Terrorists are waging a war against society. 9/11 and the recent Mumbai attacks only serve to heighten the need for protection and the information to achieve it.

To me at least that implies legalized, institutional or "state" torture.......... call it what you want, it is "official" (which does not mean to say that it is necessarily sanctioned).

HTR~, what you are describing is individual and "private", so would not be classed as "torture", it is actually "assault", just like shooting someone. I do hope you realise that if you did such a thing you would render any evidence so obtained as inadmissible, so the perp would walk away and you would go to prison.

I guess that brings us back to the initial question: if you can't do that sort of thing as an individual, to what extent can your appointed authorities do it on your behalf?

I am willing to bet that your legislation is pretty much similar to ours. When it comes to private individuals there is no such crime as torture. It is murder, manslaughter, assault and so on, but not torture.

If I murder someone it doesn't matter if I shoot, strangle, garotte, bludgeon, poison, or blow them up.................. it's murder.

my thought is always who are you to say if torture is good or bad, how it should be defined and if it should be allowed.

That bit is easy, you are a voter, a citizen, a taxpayer, a member of society. Any one or more of those gives you the right.