Stones Cry Out

I remember reading on another blog that AQ training material states: if you are captured and imprisoned, make the accusation of torture. They recognize how soft half of our culture is -- how many people there are who'll pull out of a war because people's religious / cultural tastes are being offended.

My take? If you don't want to be offended, DON'T SHOOT AT OUR TROOPS! Don't threaten to kill us, force us to convert, etc. Threatening to kill me is offensive.

When I was a pledge, the frat boys locked me and 18 guys in our underwear in a 5X5 bathroom for hours on end with a speaker blasting the most annoying sounds you could ever imagine. They also made us sit butt naked on ice blocks for about an hour. Another thing I had to do quite often is pound water until I vomited over and over again.

Okay - I was dumb...real dumb... and I subjected myself to this "torture," but I got over it. No big deal. I guess this is a round about way of saying that I don't particularly mind the fact that we use psychological "torture."

Make them stay awake for days or weeks; make them sit under bright lights for days or weeks; insult their religion and culture; make them huddle naked with other men; obey women... Sounds cruel, but

Anyways, I don't care about psychological "torture" so long as the point of the psychological "torture" is to extract information and not to punish. To me, the sickening part of Abu Gharib was: 1) the soldiers seemed to actually enjoy what they were doing; and 2) it seems there was an element of physical torture involved (hooded man with electrodes connected to his groin and elsewhere).

There would have to be a set guidelines on when and who this type of "torture" is applied and when it should stop. I don't know where the lines would be, and I'm sure it would VERY difficult to draw them unarbitrarily. But, in general, I don't have a problem with psychological "torture."

Am I wrong in my thinking?

Side note: I worked with a guy who was Muslim when I was in the pizza biz who refused to clean a toilet because, the manager, a woman, told him to clean it. He quit and filed a lawsuit claiming psychological trauma due to cultural and religious discrimination in the workplace.

Wrong buddy... I had to clean the toilet too!

where's the resident lawyer on this one??
mark?

As an aside, I read this and remembered when Jesse Ventura once said that religion is for the weak minded, that he learned that in his "SEAL" training (though I think he was actually just underwater demolition??)...anyway, a side note. Point is, maybe the theory in the military at the time was to teach someone in Jesse's training that if they have religion, they will be weak and subject to this torture?

As for me, if I were military, I am glad to be a Christian. I could be subjected to the worst moral trauma and be of sound mind and soul knowing I was free in the Grace of Jesus! (if I were southern baptist...maybe not)
Perhaps Christianity isn't for the weak minded.

Just a hypothesis...putting Ventura's words and this story together. Debate at will.