Torture and terrorists: sickening

Aaron Leonard described enhanced interrogation tactics as 'sickening.' In doing so he did two extremely foolish things: He claimed torture (as he sees it) never stopped another attack, and asked even if it did, 'so what?'

The Justice Department memo of May 30, 2005 states, 'Before the CIA used enhanced interrogation techniques ... Khalid Sheikh Mohammed [the mastermind behind 9/11] resisted giving any answers to questions about future attacks, simply noting 'soon you will know,' ' according to the legal brief.

Thanks to waterboarding, we now know Mohammed divulged a plot for a second wave to use 'East Asian operatives to crash a hijacked airliner into a building in Los Angeles.' Afterward, Mohammed admitted before a military commission at Guantanamo Bay the exact target was the U.S. Bank Tower, the tallest building on the West Coast. More specifically, the information led directly to the capture of 17 terrorists in charge of the second wave attack.

To conjecture that waterboarding didn't save the lives of thousands shows that Leonard either didn't read the memos in full or doesn't care if his fellow citizens are murdered.

As a refresher, al-Qaeda's modus operandi is hate, careful planning, patience to see an attack through, and then murder of innocent civilians in the name of world Islamification and the elimination of Israel and Westerners. This cycle of evil will continue irrespective of how nice we are to them.

I am outraged that Leonard feels sick for making a barbarian physically or mentally uncomfortable. That's the whole point. When he asked 'so what?' it made me wonder if he thinks these terrorists are misunderstood freedom fighters. Maybe he sympathizes with their cause? One can only guess.

I, on the other hand, feel sick for my country, my community and my campus that I have to defend our government for rightfully defending us.

Call me old fashioned, but I believe slitting throats with box cutters, beheading journalists and dissidents, and using airplanes as missiles is disgusting. Without enhanced interrogation techniques, thousands more would be dead and another hole in the ground would exist in Los Angeles.

I find that sickening.