Tit Tat And All 'Dat
In my opinion, one of the more naïve arguments against "torturing" or in any way mistreating captured Al Qaeda fighters is that it will have repercussions on the way they treat our prisoners. Whenever I hear that particular point tossed out I think, "What, will they be humane and sharpen the blade before they cut off our guys' heads?" Leaving aside the dubious historical record of such tit for tat prisoner treatment, especially in the late 20th century (it didn't seem to work out all that well with the Japanese death marches in WWII, the North Korean brainwashing, the Vietnamese torturing our captured airmen, or the way the Iraqis treated allied POWs in the Gulf War to name a few examples), all one has to do is look to today's news to see what our current enemies attitudes are towards prisoners:
A purported Taliban spokesman reiterated a claim Thursday that his group is holding a missing U.S. Navy SEAL and said insurgent leaders had decided to kill him. He offered no proof to back up the claim.
"This American will never be forgiven. Definitely he will be killed," Hakimi said. He said the group would release a video after the man's death.
As my wife said when she sent me this story, "Do you think they wouldn't be planning to kill this guy if only we hadn't turned up the AC at Gitmo?"
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