Destination SkillQueue
Are We There Yet
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Posted - 2011.01.25 08:18:00 -
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Edited by: Destination SkillQueue on 25/01/2011 08:19:12
My sympathies for the victims.
 Originally by: Astenion
The Russians have a much harsher policy in dealing with terrorists than the rest of the world, and even as an American, I think more countries should follow suit.
When they catch them, don't expect to hear any whining from them about the "horrendous" treatment of prisoners like making them stand up for a few hours at a time or forcing them to listen to heavy metal songs, like in Guantanamo. Simply put, Russians do not f*ck around with this stuff. These people will be killed and thrown into a ditch somewhere on national television, and any outcry from it will be met by extended middle fingers from the Russian government...and that's why Russian vengeance is so awesome.
You don't p!ss off the Russians.
Treating them as soldiers and killing them is fine even in liberal democracies. The problem is your unwillingness to take military casualties and the treatment of people once they are in your absolute control and can no longer be a threat to you.
Your unwillingness to take military casulties means that you use a lot of remote strikes and keep your distance. Such strikes keep your home happy, but aren't that good at killing your actual targets and they kill a lot of innocents. You know those people whose killing makes you view the terrorist as the scum of the earth. It's not exactly the same, since you didn't wish to kill them and apologize after killing them, but that gets smudged by the fact that your bodycount of innocents dwarfs theirs.
The problem with treating people in your absolute control is obvious. You either choose the principles of your nation, applies to liberal democracies not to countries like Russia, or the chance of getting trustworthy and vital immediate information out of them. Many will choose the information and I can understand that, but in their desperation those people abandon what liberal demoracies stand for, so I disagree with them and can't really even respect them.
Torturing people for information isn't useless, but it's much better for getting confessions, works better on non-fanatics like normal criminals and rarely producess anything of real value in the timeframe it takes to break a person. By this I mean the kind of life saving information they use to justify such treatment in the first place. Actual intelligence gathering is what you have to rely on in the end anyway and use to confirm anything a prisoner told you. If anything you sold your country's principles, created a wave of sympathy for your enemies, that make people less willing to aid your efforts, and poured fuel on the fire that your enemies use to recruit new people to fight against you. Not a good price to pay for the few useful crums of information, that you couldn't have gotten by other methods.
I agree on the part of not ****ing off the Russians. If you want them out of your country, just keep destroying their equipment and killing their soldiers and security personel, and turn the locals and international community against them. Once they leave most of their influence goes with them. By targeting civilians you only make things worse for your cause. It creates a barrier against outside help and pressure, and no politician can back away from such a challenge. That would amount to political suicide and they will grind your country to dust before backing down from that challenge.
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