Protest in Afghanistan after Quran burning

[nikhil25]

Re: Protest in Afghanistan after Quran burning

@Med911

Point taken.

However, there is something still very unsettling about a scaling one form of torture as being any less barbaric then another.
Ideally, all forms of torture should be barbaric.

Language is very important. Dont we risk enabling those who partake in torture, regardless of severity, by indulging in such scales?
How many times have we seen US politicians resorting to such comparisons to justify torture? Well water boarding is no longer torture, because Saddam would have skinned you alive… At the very least, if it doesn’t justify the act, it at least disarms the opponents of torture by portraying them as being unpatriotic by drawing any comparison in the first place. So by attacking a false equivalence as being false in this case, creates an environment where there is no longer any room for drawing any sort of equivallence.

False equivalence may be inaccurate, but they do serve some practical purpose. In refusing to see any distinction between sleep deprivation and drills to the knees, we create an environment in which all forms of torture, regardless of severity are deemed barbaric and hence reprehensible.

I think holding US values to a higher degree, requires that we refuse to not see an equivalence.

this is rather bizarre logic.

we should pretend that our human rights standards are no different from the taliban’s or else we risk accepting waterboarding?

i think the false equivalence is far more dangerous and devalues the thousand year gap in standards. internal american dialogue and evolution of our human rights standards should obviously continue. this doesn’t require us to afford the enemy and it’s apologists an opportunity to elevate themselves and be graced with a comparison they don’t deserve. there is no comparison.