The other Don't Ask/Don't Tell

A new study by the American Red Cross obtained exclusively by The Daily Beast found that a surprising majority—almost 60 percent—of American teenagers thought things like water-boarding or sleep deprivation are sometimes acceptable. More than half also approved of killing captured enemies in cases where the enemy had killed Americans. When asked about the reverse, 41 percent thought it was permissible for American troops to be tortured overseas. In all cases, young people showed themselves to be significantly more in favor of torture than older adults.

The interrogation techniques described above would not have been recognized by the Spanish Inquisition as torture, but they're certainly unpleasant. I wonder what the answers would have been had the Rack, thumb screws and yanking out one's fingernails been described as torture? Regardless, I'm not sadistic or patient enough to consider torture as a means of getting information. Shooting a prisoner or two pour encourager les autres will find people who're willing to talk much more quickly and rid you of an excess of unpleasant people at the same time.
This is of course purely rhetorical, but the survey does open the can of worms about how we should treat terrorists. I'd shoot them out of hand as the Unlawful Combatants that they are, but that's again just me (and a defensible interpretation of Article Three of the Geneva Conventions) but certainly not any kind of policy these days.

There is a whole lot of "catch and release" taking place in Afghanistan and Iraq and you can be certain that the troops don't like it. If you catch somebody planting bombs that are intended to blow you and your buddies to bits you'll be a bit miffed when the brass lets them free.

This is reality, not some survey. What is also reality is what happens to you if those Al-Queda et al arsewipes catch you. They WILL torture you and then most likely chop off your head for one of their jihadist snuff videos, regardless of how American teenagers in some Red Cross survey feel about it.

I am not saying that we should do that sort of thing; if you can't get the info you need out of them with drugs or some sleep deprivation, etc. you probably won't get anything useful and you'd compromise your own people to get it. You can of course always farm that sort of work out but it's caveat emptor for the resulting intelligence. If you pay people for results, results you will get regardless of the quality of the info.

It's a long and dirty war against these idiots, the sort that is best fought mostly in the shadows where the public can remain blissfully unaware of the things that rough men (and some women these days) do to allow them to sleep peaceably at night. It's no place for the Red Cross or American teens, so this survey is for Sociologists, not Strategists.