Everywhere I turn all everyone seems to be debating is whether the “harsh” treatment of those soulless individuals who masquerade as human beings and take such great delight in the slaughter of thousands of innocents from 9/11, to the Bali, Madrid, and London tube bombings, to the Beslan School and Mumbai killings, and the many thousands of other related atrocities committed over the past 30 years or so; is torture or not.  

   This is a conversation that only a people living in relative comfort and security could actually argue over. Yes, there are a tiny percentage of people for whatever reason that can not bring themselves to take another human life under ANY circumstances but the vast majority of any society will not be so constrained. Maslow’s hierarchical theory says that no individual, let alone a society, can move to what most of us consider a mature and “civilized” society which is able to live in relative comfort and security; without first having our most basic needs taken care of. Food, shelter, security, and the warmth and love or companionship of other people around us and with whom we can interact, then and only then we start striving for personal enlightenment.

   Many Western Christian believers know the 10 Commandments and so know, “Thou shalt not kill.” But the reality is the original text from which these commandments were taken actually reads, “Thou shalt not murder.” The difference is enormous. It is not hard to see the truth of these concepts in those unfortunate societies around the world today, such as Somalia, Sudan, Afghanistan, and many others, where life has so little value.

   It is only within a strong, secure and “civilized” society that people can even think to argue over whether water boarding a vicious monster of a man who thinks nothing about killing thousands of defenseless people and who would love to inflict such death and suffering on millions more if he could, under a doctors supervision, and where the intent is to not cause serious injury or death to the person being water boarded; is “beneath” us as a moral, god fearing, and law abiding society is to severe or not severe enough.

   If the vast majority of the people comprising our society were being butchered, our children being targeted, raped, and murdered; if we had a dozen Beslan School massacres occurring on anything like a regular basis and a dozen more 9/11’s had occurred over the past 7 years, I don’t believe the majority of those on the right or the left, let alone the vast majority of those in the middle would have any problem with such a monster being forced to hold his breath for 40 seconds of water boarding if it would illicit information which would prevent further such incidents and deaths.

   If we except what the MSM and other like minded progressive wing-nuts would have us believe should be the definitive definition of what constitutes torture then we should release every prisoner and convict currently incarcerated within our penal system and make all warm and fuzzy with them upon their release. Well, you can try that while I will lock my doors and keep my family close and my guns closer. I have experience with the darker side of these human predators and the results of their depravity and violence. I know how quickly life can be taken from any of us or our loved ones. When a government uses “harsh” interrogatory treatments to elicit the truth from even harsher individuals and that interrogation is done with a genuine concern for the physical welfare of the predator being so interrogated to elicit time sensitive information which will save many more innocent lives then so be it.

   Every Western nation, including the U.S.A. has used far more brutal tactics in our past and isn’t it strange that our societies didn’t rise up and scream and holler for the rights of those being thus treated. Only a society that hasn’t had to worry about whether they will be butchered, raped, or robbed on a regular basis would even think to have this “debate.” If a person pulls a weapon on me, THEY have chosen to escalate the violence level and have severely limited my options of defending my self or the person of another.

   If a person pulls a weapon on me I must assume they mean to use it and my response will be drastically adjusted accordingly. The big difference in my response will be training, experience, and the all important mental preparation for just such an event BEFORE such an incident occurs. I am not going to have a quick mental debate with myself about whether or not I will be able to, or should I take another human life. I have already prepared myself for that eventuality ahead of time and if such a life or death threat should confront me then I will not waste that valuable second or two making up my mind, but rather, taking direct and swift action which will drastically increase my chances of surviving the imminent threat.

   I have come very close to having to do that very thing at least a dozen times and thankfully I never had to do it. The point is, if and when that time does come, and I am forced to take another humans life I am mentally prepared before the incident occurs and will be much better prepared to cope with the aftermath of such an action. After all, what is the sense of surviving a deadly force encounter where my only option was to live or die if I spend the rest of my life mentally beating myself up for using the only option that my attacker left me with?

   Many of the decisions of our past presidents made under wartime circumstances or not, have been very tough, no doubt about it. The decision to drop two nuclear bombs on civilian populations would have certainly been among the top of that list, but President Truman made that decision and I for one, believe it saved many more lives than it erased. Winston Churchill chose to allow Nazi bombers bomb his fellow citizens rather than expose the fact that the Allies had broken the German code years earlier was another tough decision, and one which I don’t agree with but the point is these men always tried to do what they thought was best for their people in the long run. Sometimes they made the right decision and sometimes they didn’t, but they were always driven by conscience and a moral sense of what was best, not necessarily what they thought was best for them personally.  

   Forcing an occasional predator with time sensitive information to hold his breath for 40 seconds while water is poured over his face certainly doesn’t strike me as something that should be “beneath” us; especially if that predator’s knowledge which can not be obtained through lesser measures, will save the life of even one more innocent. But hey, that’s just me.