US presidential hopeful Donald Trump said Sunday he would bring back the waterboarding interrogation technique, widely considered to be torture, as it is "peanuts" in comparison to the actions of ISIL militant group.
"Well, we have to be strong. You know they [ISIL] don't use waterboarding over there; they use chopping off people's heads," Trump told the ABC television channel.
"I would bring it back. I think waterboarding is peanuts compared to what they'd do to us, what they're doing to us, what they did to [journalist] James Foley when they chopped off his head. That's a whole different level and I would absolutely bring back interrogation and strong interrogation," Trump added.
Then-President George Bush banned the use of waterboarding in interrogation in 2006. The technique was listed by incumbent leader Barack Obama as torture in 2009. On December 9, the US Senate Select Intelligence Committee issued an executive summary of a report on Central Intelligence Agency's interrogation techniques applied to alleged terrorists following the 9/11 attacks. The document describes a wide range of CIA torture practices, such as waterboarding, mock executions, prolonged sleep deprivation and threats of sexual abuse.
Comment: Trump is no longer a mere side-show nut-job in the US political circus. Whether he makes any progress in his presidential candidacy or not, he's proving himself to be a dangerous voice in whipping up hysteria, promoting divisions among humanity, and now he advocates torture as a strength.
And so the cycle of abuse and terror continues.
Will someone one day 'man up' ( or rather woman up) and recognise that feeding this vicious cycle is a backward step. History shows very clearly that it doesn't work.
In the 21st it would be kind of interesting to demonstrate that humanity is waking up to certain realities such as: evil begets evil, violence begets violence.
Our creative minds have solutions to all these problems. Is it not time to consider alternative options?
In Northern Ireland huge investment and dialogue seem to have restored peace.