"Is torture a legitimate means of combating terrorism?"

1st answer: yes. I picked this topic because I knew it would be hard. I very much support peace and am a slight pacifist, but sometimes I think as a nation we have to take the necessary steps to protect ourselves (even if this includes terrorist torture).

2nd answer: yes...though the argument about torture being "un-American" made me blink a bit, I still feel that a means of protection means a whole lot more than living up to an ideal.

3rd answer: YES -- “torture: any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person.”... but aren't these terrorists doing this to innocent people? I feel there should be repercussions for their actions, rather than just being held in a jail cell like any normal prisoner on tax payer money. How are we supposed to get knowledge out of these people just by messing with their psyche? The Geneva Convention doesn't even allow you to do THAT. "And finally, in June 2006, the Supreme Court ruled that terror suspects were entitled to protection from 'outrages upon personal dignity, and in particular humiliating and degrading treatment,' as outlined in the Geneva Conventions."

4th answer: I don't know!--"This is the country, after all, that helped liberate Europe from the Nazis; the country that reacts in horror to the notion of political prisoners—and what they likely endure—in China and to accounts of Saddam Hussein’s chemical attacks on Kurdish civilians. It is the country that ensures the freedom of speech and assembly. It is also the country where—and this is critical to the torture debate—one is presumed innocent until proven guilty." Gosh I hate that this game plays is such a devil's advocate.

5th answer: No--"Whereas the strong will endure, the weak will say anything—including falsehoods—to stop the pain." This is true. I believe in torture as a means of PUNISHMENT when it is sure someone has committed a crime. For instance, if you murder someone in cold blood, personally I think it's wrong that instead of facing the same death you gave that person, you sit in a jail cell on death row for 95 years soaking up tax payer money.

6th & final answer: Yes--they presented a situation under a time-crunch in which the terrorist suspect wasn't tortured and a bomb went off injuring thousands...though this is a far-fetched hypothetical situation... it still gave me the creeps to think that my torturing ONE person to gain information thousands of lives could be saved.