McCain: Japanese Hanged For Waterboarding

(AP)  Republican presidential candidate John McCain reminded people Thursday that some Japanese were tried and hanged for torturing American prisoners during World War II with techniques that included waterboarding.

"There should be little doubt from American history that we consider that as torture otherwise we wouldn't have tried and convicted Japanese for doing that same thing to Americans," McCain said during a news conference.

He said he forgot to mention that piece of history during Wednesday night's Republican debate, during which he criticized former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney after Romney declined to publicly say what interrogation techniques he would rule out.

"I would also hope that he would not want to be associated with a technique which was invented in the Spanish Inquisition, was used by Pol Pot in one of the great eras of genocide in history and is being used on Burmese monks as we speak," the Arizona senator said. "America is a better nation than that."

Waterboarding generally makes breathing difficult and can cause the subject to think he's drowning. It's banned by domestic law and international treaties, but those policies don't cover CIA personnel and President Bush's administration won't say whether it has been allowed against terrorism detainees.

McCain was a prisoner of war for more than five years during the Vietnam War. He was tortured during that time, but said he wasn't subjected to waterboarding.

"If the United States was in another conflict, which could easily happen, with another country, and we have allowed that kind of torture to be inflicted on people we hold captive, then there's nothing to prevent that enemy from also torturing American prisoners," McCain said.

McCain also said the presidential primary process needs to be straightened out, and if the political parties can't, Congress should.

"The people deserve a longer process of scrutiny of the candidates and they're not getting it. It is a little bizarre for us to be having a primary on Jan. 3," said McCain, referring to the Iowa caucus.

Florida moved up its primary election to Jan. 29, and Michigan later set a Jan. 15 date, moves that set off a scramble that resulted in Iowa's caucus and the New Hampshire's primary moving up to preserve their early voting status. New Hampshire will vote Jan. 8.

New Hampshire, Iowa and South Carolina should still be allowed to pick their candidates ahead of the rest of the country, but the country should then be divided into four sections with voting in each on a schedule that allows candidates time to campaign in each region before moving to the next, McCain said.

[glaswolf]

I have my differences with McCain, but on this score he is correct. The American army should never sanction torture. Our ruthlessness in battle encounter or in officer-officer interactions to ensure mission success is only tolerable to our enemies because once victory is achieved, we are a civil people''s army of just normal citizen soldiers. It is essential that our enemies trust our soldiers, this is what allows our renegades to wander thru active warzones unmolested by ambiant populations, feeding awareness directly to their officers, by passing offialdom. We are supposed to be sufficiently capable to overwhelm our enemies by methods and our raw intelligence, our abilities are suppose to allow us the luxury of civility on the battle field, after actions and during. Keeping chipper is a standing order as it were, there''s nothing wrong about being nice to people until you have to kill them due to circumstance within your control.

[rowdytexan2]

Posted by dog_canyon at 08:01 PM : Nov 30, 2007

Exactly!

By hook or by crook, we''ll get the information we need to justify what we do!

The value of torture is not to reveal the truth, but to force someone to tell you what you want them to say. What they say then provides you with justification for something you want to do, like attack a foreign country or declare martial law.

The value of torture is not to reveal the truth, but to force someone to tell you what you want them to say. What they say then provides you with justification for something you want to do, like attack a foreign country or declare martial law.

[p-syrus]

McCain properly reminds us that waterboarding IS torture and it has been the policy of the U.S. goverment in the past to impose the death penalty on governement agents guilty of implementation of such horrific treatment of prisoners.

Now will John McCain make the logical connection and demand the trial & execution of ANY U.S. official, military, civilian, or elected official who is GUILTY of the implementation of waterboarding and other techniques of torture against persons detained by the agents of the u.s. government?

I am not personally in favor of the death penalty, but if it means that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Gonzales, et al swing for what they have forced u.s. service personnel to do in the name of "patriotic duty", well, I promise not to protest very loudly.

As much as I may hope, I feel the cause is doubtful since McCain has been the cheerleader in chief for the current regimes war on the constitution.

[htophet]

It would seem I have to say something positive about two republicans. One this 61 year old veteran remembers was a POW survivor. Senator McCain who has been tortured and knows what will happen to our troops if our government continues with it and Ron Paul. Paul is the only guy that is totally for ending this illegal occupation of a foreign country in this NeoNaziCon party. What a choice for the rightwing ChickHawks, in there narrow minded, anti-democratic, theocratic driven, corporate bought dog group of traitors. I am glad my father who fought in WWII in Europe did not live to see this group...he helped Europe get rid of the last bunch of Nazi%u2019s and would no doubt be on the no-travel list today. Mores the pity for those of us who in reading history know we got the best of the German and Italian scientists because of our treatment of prisoners. I suggest the public needs to read some history before they vote in 2008.

[kansas1946]

Mitt is really pitiful. He is trying to look "tough" and comes off looking like an idiot. To even suggest that water boarding is not torture, is immoral. He is a weak candidate at best. Of course the Republicans are notorious for picking idiot candidates, so who knows what they will do. They have a whole boatload of candidates, and not one of them presidential material.

[WakeWashington]

I had a room mate who was an Air Force interrogator, who worked in a program that subjected our own servicemen to waterboarding to prepare them for it should they be captured.

He said it didn%u2019t hurt anyone but quickly triggered a primal survival instinct that forced almost everyone to panic and %u201Cgo progressive,%u201D cooperating at least a little, even if they didn%u2019t give up very important information. Once people started down that road, he found them much easier to break, negotiating for more information in increments.

Whether other nations admit to it or not, I got the impression the technique was pretty standard procedure for information extraction because it is so quick and easy and the psychological impact is far more effective than simply inflicting pain on a subject.

Undoubtedly there are harmful variations of the technique, used for punishment and intimidation rather than information extraction, which would account for the WWII Japanese convictions.

[gunownerdan]

Being a veteran, Dr. Ron Paul would never allow torture of any kind to take place.
Dr. Ron Paul is the ONLY pro-peace and pro-liberty candidate running for president.
He also has the strongest record in congress of protecting the Constitution.
ronpaul2008.com

[flreason]

I''m glad at least one candidate has the guts to stand against torture. They all need to do it. If they won''t, then they shouldn''t get our votes. We need to regain the moral high ground that has been so badly damaged because of the carte blanche the Bush administration felt that 9-11 offered them. We cannot afford to abandon our founders'' principles for corporate gain.