What if your child’s life was at stake?
In support of torture, it all keeps boiling down to the argument, “can you honestly say, if some group was holding your child hostage, was going to kill him, and you had caught someone who knew where he was, would you not do anything and everything to stop them?”
To that question I have a legitimate, honest answer that can only be heard with both ears, cold rationality, and a full sense of the moral tightrope implied by that particular scenario. If this unlikely and terrifying event were to actually occur, I think every parent would pray to have the strength and mental clarity to summon all those assets.
I do have a son. He’s almost 19. If he were captured by some group that fervently believe that different cultures pose an existential threat, are convinced of the righteousness of their cause, and are spurred on by the moral superiority of their god, I’d be terrified for my son’s life.
My son is a good kid, but he probably hangs out with some people I wouldn’t approve of. If he happened to be hanging out with those people and inadvertently got rounded up by these zealots, I’d just pray those zealots weren’t the United States government.
someone's son
Because I see this picture and weep for his mother. I don’t care what he did or did not do. He is a human being with a mother and father. He was an infant and a toddler, and someone loves him. Most children’s first recognizable word is “dada” in English, but maybe he was like my son, and his first word was Arabic for “ball”.
It’s called “inhumane” treatment or a reason. No human being deserves to be treated like trash. If he is guilty, try, convict, and execute him. But don’t dishonor the United States commitment to human rights in my name or in a hypothetical attempt to protect my son.
May 19, 2009 at 3:54 am
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