Quote Originally Posted by motorfirebox View Post
I was outlining a general priority system--acknowledging, basically, that an agent of any government has a larger obligation to the citizens of that government than to non-citizens. It's not that I think that 'enhanced' interrogation methods are okay so long as it's only brown people. Rather, I think torture is a bigger problem if it's American agencies torturing American citizens than when it's American agencies torturing foreign nationals. And it's a priority system, not a set of absolute tiers--if you have to choose between waterboarding one countryman versus waterboarding ten, or a hundred, or a thousand foreign nationals, there's a point at which the ethical choice is to introduce your fellow citizen to exciting adventures in simulated drowning.

But like I said, the ethical question may be moot, because the more effective tact may also be the more ethical one.
My friend, there is a bias there. The question of making a difference between the individuals based on so called objective criterias is a door that has already been opened.
It took a world war to close it in Europe and Martin Luther King in the US.

Also, if you accept that inhuman treatment are acceptable for foreigners then accept that US citizen are target of any act of violence everywhere, anytime without anyreasons. What works for the others does work for you...

But we are running in circle here