First a little bit about me. My Name is Harry Joseph Todd, I am 19 and I am in the second year of a law degree at the University of Sunderland. I have been a member of the Labour party since i was 16 and would describe myself as a social communist. This does not however make me a leftist nutter. I hope that as i write more into this blog you will begin to see that while I have a personal opinion on most things I won't always agree with things just because I feel that they represent my 'side' of the argument.
The best example I can think to give for this is the frankly appalling display given by my peers during the march in London in protest of the tuition fee rise. Yes I disagree with the rise but no i don't believe that warrants violence or even violent behaviour because taking violent actions in a protest has a long history of simply losing the protesters any public support they may have had. I would like to stress though that i am not condemning the students and protesters who took violent action. I believe that they did what they thought was best in the circumstances, regardless of the fact that I personally disagree with it.
Now onto today's issues. Top of the list is Waterboarding. A friend (and i use the term loosely) of mine recently posted on his face book status that he agreed with George Bush that Water boarding was and is necessary. Now putting aside my own feelings on the issue, that waterboarding is a blatant human rights abuse and should never happen under any circumstances, I feel it is important to discuss the issue properly.
WARNING THERE ARE IMAGES OF A VERY GRAPHIC AND VIOLENT NATURE FOLLOWING THIS MESSAGE! IF YOU ARE EASILY OFFENDED PLEASE DO NOT CONTINUE TO READ.
First, with regards the necessity of waterboarding as an intelligence gathering tool, I would like to point out that we in Great Britain have a very long history of refusing to hear evidence obtained gathered under torture in our courts. It was first condemned as cruel by the Lateran Council of 1215. From the fifteenth century onwards it was then disallowed in UK courts (except under special warrant) before finally being phased out completely by the Long Parliament in 1640 when it disbanded the court able to issue torture warrants.
The reasons for this are, when put bluntly, that torture is unreliable. Put yourself in that situations, being beaten every day and being water boarded until you broke. At that point you would probably admit to just about anything to make the torture stop. So how can it be a useful tool of intelligence gathering? to put it simply I don't think it can be.
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| A prisoner being waterboarded |
Right now onto it being neccesary to torture people. On this matter i tend to be a little bias, because i think anyone who makes this arguement is worse then a racist. We will have all heard it said before 'to hell with Human Rights, terrorists aren't human'.
Well I have news for you. They are. And by saying that for us to win the war on terror we need to torture someone because they might be a terrorist well guess what? we just lost your god damn war on terror. Because this war, if it can be called that, is about idealogy. And the fact is that every time we given in and sign away another persons freedom we become the monsters that the other side in this war has been painting us as all along.
Peace out everyone and remember. Torture and waterboarding are not neccesary or right or legal. There just some dickheads way of making himself seem like the big man in the war on terror.
Yours truely.
Harry.
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