31. #26 Parker,
Okay, so you hate Liberals, that much we can see. But, honestly ask yourself the following. Americans that happened to have a different political view than mine, really want to protect the enemy? Care more about the terrorist than our very own? Wait Parker listen, this one is a real good one... Liberals want to loose in Iraq?? Bleeding hearts???

You really think these things??? It never occured to you and those who think like you, that these "LIBERALS" who by the way are Americans and also love this country are your fellow Americans?? That many of them also died or lost loved ones on 9/11 and are dying in Iraq because they are there as well, fighting for our nation??

Liberals are not on the side of terrorist, nor are they affraid to fight to defend their nation. THEY ARE NOT CUT AND RUNNERS... DON'T RESPECT THE TROOPS.... ?? Please give me a break. All those disgusting political talking points that so many good Americans are accepting and taking it as gospel. Is crap and I truly think that you must know this deep inside of you.

Have you read some of the post on this blog? No one is suggesting that Terrorist get a free pass or go free or not be punished. But, aren't you PROUD to be an American and what this country has always stood for. Have we not always tried to be an example?? Do you honestly belive that torturing a person will get us the information (real information/ FACTS/DATES/TIME?) we need??

If you really belive that Liberals are not filled with rage and anger about 9/11 you are SOOOOO mistaken. If you think that we would not LOVE to see OSAMA'S Head, you are SO mistaken or any other terrorist.

Also ask yourself this question. Torture is something that is against international laws (Yes, I know these animals don't play by the book!!) Well, does our President play by the rules, if so... why did he say so many times "WE DO NOT TORTURE" Have you listen to what John McCain has to say about torture??? I think he would know better than you, me and the IDIOT we are stuck with in the White House!!!

Come on Parker think!!

Please just read the posts. Liberals want justice too. We also do not want our guys getting tortured out there!! We don't give a rats a$$ about the Terrorirst! We care about our Nation, our troops and we also care that our leaders aren't criminals themselves.

Patty at 7:03PM on Nov 26th 2007

32. Liberals no nothings have waterboarding on the brain ... or maybe just water.

Question: IF waterboarding is torture ... they why do we use it on our own troops in training ... and no one sues?

Riddle me this, or stop the limp wristed liberal whining, and the ugly accusations on a subject you clearly don't understand! Thank you.

Thomas J Gassett at 7:16PM on Nov 26th 2007

33. "Do you honestly belive that torturing a person will get us the information (real information/ FACTS/DATES/TIME?) we need??"

OK PATTY do you really think they are going to tell you anything any other way .... maybe we could buy them dinner or something. when the common man is in distress the truth will set him free.

And for your comment about bin laden's head, just seems to me that you are a closet torturist. are you saying somebody should behead him?

youngturkssuck at 7:22PM on Nov 26th 2007

34. Well that is the last Stephen King book I will buy. You have to fight fire with fire, Mr. King. Terrorists think nothing of torturing our citizens, beheading them, burning them, blowing them up in airplanes. Almost makes "waterboarding" seem like a fun sport. I fear for America if pansy a** politicians get elected that are too politically correct to fight terrorism with real fire. You can't negotiate with someone who would rather die to kill you than live. God Bless the USA...because we are going to need all the blessings we can get to survive the coming horrors.

Kelley Raunec at 8:20PM on Nov 26th 2007

35. Many of us are frustrated with the incompetence of this president and his administration. Not to mentioned the blantan disregard and disrespect for our Constitution for the laws of the land. >>>

You say it with the certainty of a lunatic and with nothing but an ugly liberal bias to back it up. Been hearing this crap for years ... nothing new here.

If Bush has done anything impeachable and YOUR congress fails to impeach, they are violating their oaths of office. (our constitution)

When will one of you drones even wonder why your congress, the congress that was supposed to hold the Bush administration responsible for its actions ... isn't doing a damn thing? Answer: They lied their way into office by destorying our standing in the world with lies, and they have no intention of proving it with impeachment hearings.
Wake up and smell the Starbucks, kid.

Thomas J Gassett at 8:06PM on Nov 26th 2007

36. You have to be kidding me! The Terrorists think nothing of Burning Americans alive, Beheading Americans, Car Bombing Americans, and torturing innocent US Soldiers. Kind of makes "waterboarding" sound like a water sport. Get real! Being politically correct now means not offending or harming anyone else regardless of their crimes. Insanity. God Bless the USA...we are going to need it soon, especially if our elected officials don't grow some balls and fight terrorism with every ounce of strength and cunning they can muster! You don't bring a pocket knife to a gun fight!

Kelley at 8:21PM on Nov 26th 2007

37. First, why does anyone care what Stephen King thinks about torture. I care what Chris Matthews, Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, John McLaughlin, Elinor Clift and other Washinton pundits think, and not a mystery author.

Second, rules against torture only apply to:

a) convicts held in federal and state prisons
b) POWs serving either in the military of recognized government or a recognized rebel group that conducts its operations with uniforms and ranks.

Since terrorists don't fit either group, they may be tortured at will.

In other words, someone convicted of fraud and sent to a federal prison, such as Atlanta or Marion, IL, or a state prison such as Folsom, CA or Sing Sing, NY can't be tortured.

You also can't torture men serving in the Iraqi Army during the Saddam era, since Saddam's government was recognized as the sovereign government of Iraq.

The same holds true, when the KLO was fighting the Serbian government, since it operated as a military organization and would presumably become the Kosovo Army, if Kosovo successfully broke away from Serbia.

Members of al-Qadi don't fit, because they don't operate as a military group, i.e., no ranks and no uniforms.

Now, I'm not suggesting bamboo manicures or boiling egg-drop colonics, but waterboarding is permissible.

Kent at 8:34PM on Nov 26th 2007

38. WOW! Are ANY of you folks venting this rhetoric actual survivors of Sept 11 attacks? Any of you 1st Responders or rescue workers? Any of you veterans of the Armed Forces having served in combat during this war? Lots of opinions but none of you "have been there and done that." I saw first hand what happened on 9/11 and I worked in the Pit at the WTC from 9/11 -9/15 before being sent directly to Afghanistan with the 10th Mountain Division; then worked for DHS in NYC supervising recovery in lower Manhattan in the WTC disaster field office - so I think I'm qualified to voice what I believe to be a expert opinion. And for as much as I am a Stephen King aficionado (Got all his 1st Edition books, most signed), Mr. King was 4F during Vietnam and none of his children have served in the Armed Forces. He may be the world's best selling novelist, but he's no more entitled to an opinion about what's right for this country than any of you who've commented here. In the words of a famous Democrat - "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."

I've had the distinct pleasure of calling down rains of fire on those responsible for 9/11 and on those who laughed at us while the fires still burned in Manhattan. Not a day passes when I don't recall with a distinct amount of pride that I was privileged to inflict more horror on these animals than Stephen King could ever dream of even writing. When I crushed the skulls of the dead in Afghanistan I could happily justify it because I picked up pieces of human meat off the streets of Manhattan -each representing an innocent American life taken from their loved ones.

Water boarding? Not even close to what these things deserve. If I had to cut off the ears and lips of 10,000 Al-Qaeda, Taliban, Sunnis or Shiites, I do it with a smile if it could save just one American. (Even one of you opinionated, non-veterans). Why is it so hard for you folks to rationalize the fact that we're involved in a fight to secure OUR way of life -gas guzzling vehicles and mad capitalists side by side with dirt poor Appalachian miners and middle-class I-don't-give-a-shit yuppies living in $900,000.00 homes. It's US or THEM. And right now, they control our access to the blood of this nation -OIL. You think water-boarding is bad? Try going one week in the United States without lights, electricity, cable TV, cell-phones, the Internet or gas for your SUV. Then come and tell me you wouldn't feel comfortable soaking some half-baked, fanatical indigent living in a mud hut with a bit of water so you could have your "simple pleasures" back the following week. Can you afford $20 a gallon to get to work? I don't think so. If you can, stand up on your soap box and rant. But first, let everyone else know how you can get by without all these things we have a RIGHT to take for granted. My Constitution tells me I have the RIGHT to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It DOESN'T tell me I have to protect the rights of those in foreign countries who stand in my way to ensure these benefits.
You don't like torture? Fine. Put on a uniform and go sweet talk yourself silly with an Al-Qaeda fighter. Personally, I'd prefer to let them know (just barely, and with the help of one of our most basic of elements) that I can be 100 times as brutal and 10,000 times more ruthless. One cannot win wars by demonstrating compassion towards the enemy. And if you haven't been able to figure out the simple fact that it's "My country, right or wrong," then perhaps you need to consider moving somewhere neutral like Switzerland.
And now to Mr. King. Stephen, you are by far the world's modern authority of the literary genre we call horror. From your provocative illustration of adolescent violence in schools ("RAGE") to the cornball "Witch and the Farting Cookie," you’re a terrorist in your own right. No one in this nation (or the world for that matter) can argue that you're not a brilliant and prolific writer capable of capturing the imagination of nearly everyone who's ever heard your name through your hundreds of novels, short stories, screen-plays or poems. You are NOT however, the world's best known political pundit. Stick to what you're good at -scaring the hell out of us. Keep that doorway to our imagination open as far as it can stretch on its hinges. But remember just that-you capture our imagination. You can't know the TRUE horror which haunts those of us who descended into Dante's Inferno on 9/11; you can't know the TRUE horror which afflicts the minds and hearts of we who carried the fight to our enemies in the mountains of Afghanistan; you DON'T know the dark secrets in the souls of those who've gnawed away faces with our teeth or placed bullets into the heads of fathers and mothers in front of their children. We, the Veterans, understand the necessity of hiding the evils of warfare from our own loved ones - loved ones who will never know, nor could they understand, the obligation to be cruel and most vicious. We stand willing to commit any act of human depravity in order to render our enemies (and those who support them) incapable of harming those whom we love and those whom we protect. Our life for yours. If you take simple pleasure enjoying the fruits of freedom, never question the modus operandi of those who preserve it. We do what we must to protect the sanctity of our fundamental rights at the cost of human life each day so that you never need taste the pit of the peach we call freedom. Should you one day bite the bitter, we have failed and God help us.

Liam at 8:56PM on Nov 26th 2007

39. If Jenna were a terrorist with information that could help save thousands of lives I would agree that she should be waterboarded. Since she is not, King should shut up about her.

Greg at 8:50PM on Nov 26th 2007

40. those bush grrlz can hold their breath for a LONG TIME!

alex at 9:40PM on Nov 26th 2007

41. FRANKLY - TO THINK ITS OK TO USE THE PRESIDENTS DAUGHTER IN A WATERBOARDING EXAMPLE IS CRAZY - IS THIS THE BASIC MENTALITY OF TODAYS LIBERALS? NO WONDER OUR DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS IS SUCH A DISASTER - MAYBE WE SHOULD FIRE THEM ALL AND START FROM SCRATCH - AS FOR USING METHODS TO GET INFORMATION FROM TERRORISTS - USE THEIR METHODS - I BET THEY SPEAK UP QUICK - AND I BET THEIR METHODS WOULD DEFINATELY BE AGAINST LIBERALS BELIEFS AND FAR MORE DRASTIC THAN WATERBOARDING

CARL at 11:19PM on Nov 26th 2007

42. Patty, you made many strong accusations against me based on my short paragraph response, let’s take a look at your claims. I do not hate liberals, they just aggravate me. I realize that our two party system is what separates this great America from the other countries. I do believe that every American feels like we ought not to loose in Iraq, whether that means withdraw or pushing forward. This debate, started by the ridiculous joke of water boarding an innocent daughter of the president, has transgressed into whether or not the ends justify the means. This is entirely up to personal interpretation, some choose to believe that torture is torture, this is fine, others believe that if that terrorist knows something, he better speak up, and soon. NEVER in my argument did I say liberals are indifferent to 911 or that they disrespect the troops, however, if one were to read your post they would get that impression. There is a difference between a liberal and a radical liberal, same as the difference between a conservative and a radical conservative.
After re-reading my argument I realize my wording was incorrect, I was calling all the naysayers radical liberals, and in this respect you are correct and I am incorrect. Regardless, it will always be my opinion that, when necessary, we should water board a terrorist. There is a difference between a high value terrorist and some Joe-Iraqi who you pull off the street. I believe that some of you have the opinion that army members are running in the streets, grabbing all the men and water boarding them for information they might not have. I hope this practice is being used sparingly, and, truthfully, I only agree with this if it is used only when the subject is known to contain information. As you requested, I have reread, rewrote, and (most importantly) thought… and this is my response.

Parker at 10:12PM on Nov 26th 2007

43. Patty - Give it up. You are only poking a stick into the animals' cages. They are scared and willing to do anything they need to feel more secure today, no matter the long term cost. Their ethic is that whatever the worst someone else can do to one of ours is the basis of what we can do to anyone else, whether they are the one who hurt one of ours or not.

They are not willing to enter into a dialog.

alan at 10:57PM on Nov 26th 2007

44. Hey King, how about we tie one of your kids to a rock and throw them in the pool?Bet you'd give up any information you had, but since you wanna defend terrorists, we'll tie you to the rock, bring you up, ask the questions, and if they don't pan out, back in! That's how they found the jerks responsible for WTC '93, even the blind sheik gave up his cohorts...so much for NOT dying for Allah, when you just suck water, not a virgin.

Dedmanrisn at 11:07PM on Nov 26th 2007

45. This seriously depresses me. At this rate, the terrorists won't have to do anything else to destroy our country. We're doing it for them. We can use whatever draconian measures we desire to stop terrorism. If we're lucky, it might even work. But then what state will the U.S. be in? We will have compromised the values that this nation was built to defend, and in the process destroyed what is truly America ourselves. I thought America was supposed to have the moral high ground, and we did through a large part of the last century. Now we're giving it up because we're trying to stop terrorism. We, in short, are in terror of another attack. Which strikes me as exactly what the terrorists want.

Our way of life is not going to die because a few maniacs blow up bombs in our cities. Absent an attacking army, which the terrorists don't possess, they have no way to force us to abandon our way of life. What they can do is make us abandon it ourselves, by inspiring terror. So far? It seems to be working, and that scares me.

I really don't think torture is a good idea anyway. As I said, we can really use whatever draconian measures we desire. However, if we go too far, then we risk a large amount of hatred and contempt in the Muslim world. And, interestingly enough, that's something that terrorist recruiters can use to draw more young Muslims into their web of half-truths and hatred. The worse we become, the more terrorists we can kill, but then we'll need to kill more to keep up with increasing recruitment. That's not going to end. And even if we kill every single terrorist in the entire world, there will no doubt will still be young Muslims that hate the U.S.; if we do nothing to address the causes of their hatred, it will remain and cause more terrorism.

It seems to me that many people are attracted to the idea of massacring as many terrorists as they can get their hands on. My question is: do you really want to prevent more attacks, or do you just want revenge for 9-11? I can't tell, and really, no one aside from yourselves can. Just take a close look at the reason for the atrocities you are advocating. Because ultimately, the atrocities I see some people advocating are the type of thing which this country has strenuously fought against in the past, and the type of thing which I belived the U.S. to be completely opposed to.

I am sure that I will promptly be accused of some type of cowardice or soft-heartedness in connection with liberalism. The latter label I accept, but neither of the former labels. I am planning on going into the military, because I do consider myself a patriot - dedicated to defending American values and morals.

Raigon at 11:26PM on Nov 26th 2007