Quote Originally Posted by asdf View Post
...torture and other inhumane treatment or punishment".
So which leads me to this related side bar: is it humane to lock a free willed human in a cage for the rest of his life?

One, we're not talking about punishment - torture was ostensibly used in conjunction with interrogation. Two, this was not connected with any specific crimes - the victims of the US system of torture had not been convicted of anything, and their habeus corpus rights had been suspended so they couldn't even request to know why they were detained.
They are enemies of the State. Like mom said be careful who you ***ociate with.

And to waterboard a person 183 times over the course of a month, after he had been cooperative with interrogators, is actually pretty bad.
Every 4 hours for a month?

You have to remember that those who wrote those words were the persecuted, not the persecutors. To use those verses in support of the government carrying out immoral acts is to get it entirely upside-down. The scriptures were written to comfort those who were being repressed and victimized by a cruel, godless regime - to know that ultimately, God is in control and it was [his] place to vindicate [his] people.
I wonder how much comfort to these words were:" 2Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. " while being crucified burned as lamps to know if you resist authority you resist the ordinance of God. I realize there are verses that say to count it as a blessing to suffer in the same way as Christ.

As I said this is one of the most difficult things to understand how God gave Sadam "authority". I see the pattern of God using the unrighteous nation to discipline the backslidden nation and vice versa. It is difficult none the less.

MacG