Army general: No to torture
Hats off to Army Maj. Gen. George Davis, who vigorously objected to waterboarding and other forms of torture. He wrote that: No modern state, which is a party to international law, can sanction, either expressly or by a silence which imports consent, a resort to torture with a view to obtain confessions, as an incident ...
Hats off to Army Maj. Gen. George Davis, who vigorously objected to waterboarding and other forms of torture. He wrote that:
Hats off to Army Maj. Gen. George Davis, who vigorously objected to waterboarding and other forms of torture. He wrote that:
No modern state, which is a party to international law, can sanction, either expressly or by a silence which imports consent, a resort to torture with a view to obtain confessions, as an incident to its military operations. If it does, where is the line to be drawn? If the ‘water cure’ is ineffective, what shall be the next step? Shall the victim be suspended, head down, over the smoke of a smouldering fire; she he be tightly bound and dropped from a distance of several feet; shall he be beaten with rods; shall his shins be rubbed with a broomstick until they bleed?
Fwiw, General Davis made that comment in September 1902, when he was the senior lawyer in the Army. He is quoted in the new, Winter 2010 issue of Army History magazine.
Thomas E. Ricks is a former contributing editor to Foreign Policy. Twitter: @tomricks1
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