Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump watches as Ted Cruz speaks during Saturday’s Republican debate in Manchester, N.H. (Joe Raedle, Getty Images)
Re: Republican debate skids off rails on torture issue, Feb. 9 editorial.
Your editorial tells readers that presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz has said his interpretation of current U.S. policy on torture is that it does not exclude waterboarding as an interrogation technique. Sen. Cruz also has said that, if he were to become our commander in chief, he would carpet bomb the Islamic State.
When it comes to an understanding of warfare, it appears that the senator may be just another tough-talking Texan, reminiscent of former Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and George W. Bush. I suggest Sen. Cruz ease up on his chest-thumping, lest he break a rib.
Bill Wagner, Eaton
This letter was published in the Feb. 11 edition.The prime use of torture is revenge, punishment or sadistic gratification. Torture is done to inflict severe physical and/or mental pain on the subject. The Bill of Rights defines cruel and unusual punishment as torture — inhuman or degrading treatment.
Torture is forbidden under the United Nations Convention Against Torture signed by the United States and ratified by Congress in 1994. Also, under the U.S. Code, it is forbidden when inflicted upon another person when in our custody or physical control.
Sen. Ted Cruz and Donald Trump both need to re-read the law of the land.
Douglas R. Peterson, Wheat Ridge
This letter was published in the Feb. 11 edition.As a junior officer engaged in salvage diving operations in the Mekong Delta in 1969-70, I was essentially waterboarded for two or three minutes when my air was accidently shut off while four decks down inside a sunken dredge. The terror while getting out, inhaling water, losing consciousness under water and regaining it only because my tender jumped in and pulled me out caused me recurring nightmares that lasted for years.
Take my word for it. Being intentionally and repeatedly subjected to such an experience over any length of time indeed constitutes torture.
What s really troubling now is that such a sizeable percentage of my countrymen support candidates who, by their tough-guy talk, qualify themselves as international war criminal wannabes.
Leslie A. Howitt, Fort Collins
This letter was published in the Feb. 11 edition.
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