I am not legally twisting anything, nor am I supporting the policy.
You are simply starting from a conclusion and rejecting any logic
incompatible with your conclusion. That has not place in law or
science.
I am not arguing what we did or did not do was right. I am not
arguing what we did was useful. Neither of those opinions informs a
discussion of what the controlling law is.
Matthew
On May 16, 2009, at 11:35 PM, Jeff Miles wrote:
And so legally you twist the definition because certain members of
the military agreed to have it done to them with their training.
What contract did the prisoners at Guantanamo(sp) sign? And what
about the law against any contract under duress? The argument is BS.
Jeff M
On May 16, 2009, at 8:06 PM, Matthew Taylor wrote:
The law in an ass, and always has been as it is an imperfect
creation of an imperfect institution put in pl;ace by imperfect
beings. Nevertheless, the law determines what is legal. Either
you argue that every POTUS, ever chairman of the Joint Cheifs, and
much of the senior command staff are criminals because they
approved and implemented SERE and SERE = torture, or you can not
argue that identical practices are criminal torture. There are
many places where the common usage definition of a term does not
match the legal definition, but in matters of law it is the legal
definition that is controlling.
Matthew
On May 16, 2009, at 9:55 PM, Jeff Miles wrote:
Yes, I've heard this argument, and it's stupid. Because we
torture our own servicemen and call it training doesn't change
what it is. However, it is a good game. I wonder how many other
definitions we can change to suit our legal needs?
Jeff M
On May 16, 2009, at 4:52 PM, Matthew Taylor wrote:
The problem is the legal reasoning that says it was not torture
is quite sound - the key being that as I understand it we did
nothing that we do not do to our own servicemen in the resistance
portion of SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape)
training. If the assumption is that we are not torturing our own
servicemen, then doing the same to others might be extremely poor
judgement in the circumstances, might be held to be wrong for a
variety of reasons, but it still would not be torture.
Matthew
*************************************************************************
** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives,
privacy **
** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://
www.cguys.org/ **
*************************************************************************
*************************************************************************
** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives,
privacy **
** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://
www.cguys.org/ **
*************************************************************************
*************************************************************************
** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy **
** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ **
*************************************************************************