Walsh’s position on torture shocking

“I’m absolutely for torturing!”

These were the shocking words told to the small crowd of people that showed up at Illinois Congressman Joe Walsh’s town hall meeting Saturday, June 18, held at Granny’s Lakeside Diner in Antioch Il. He went on to say that the government should have any tools necesarry to interrogate possible terrorists.

I was shocked to hear him come right out and declare this, so I asked him if he supported our troops. He claimed he did. I then asked him if any of our young men and women were to be captured in Iraq or Afghanistan, was it OK for them to be tortured? He immediately answered no, but then went on to say that our enemies there are evil men, and they will torture and behead our soldiers regardless of what we do.

Another attendee to the meeting stated that torture has been shown to be completely unreliable. But Walsh doubled down and said that there was more research that showed that torture was a useful tool.

Not only is torture a violation of the Geneva Convention, it is in violation of American law. It may be true that our enemies may not recognize laws and torture our troops anyway, but how can we condemn their actions if we commit the same atrocities? America needs to set the example for the world, and fight to end these actions — not wholeheartedly endorse them.

Robert Hoffman Jr.

Antioch