Diamondback Online - The University of Maryland's Independent Daily Student Newspaper

Issue date: 5/2/08 Section: News

Constitutional clauses, war stories and torture tactics - opinions on all three topics flew fast and furious on Wednesday night, as a five-person panel discussed the validity of the war on terror.

Non-profit think tank The Roosevelt Institution invited five panelists, including two military veterans and three leaders of student groups at the university, to talk about the war and terrorism around the world. Before a crowd of about 60 students in the Prince George's Room in the Stamp Student Union, the debate grew heated as panelists were grilled by the moderators as well as the audience members about various aspects of the war.

The debaters included two veterans: Mike Waler, who spent six years with the U.S. Army in Jordan and Iraq, and Dan Hardisty, who spent six years in the Navy stationed in the Middle East, as well as John Allenbach, newly elected president of the College Democrats, Chris Banerjee, president of the College Republicans ,and John Brinjak of Maryland Students for Liberty.

The panel argued about various aspects of the war, such as the suspension of habeas corpus, warrentless wire tapping, the definition of torture, withdrawal from Iraq and racial profiling. The panel was meant to educate students about the war and the effects it has had on the American judicial system and citizens, said Andrew Hallowell, co-director of The Roosevelt Institution.

"In order to have a functioning democracy, you need to get competing visions and competing views," Hallowell said. "It's good for people to hear those things."

One of the most contentious issues debated by panelists and audience members was the use of waterboarding by U.S. forces when trying to obtain information from captives.

Banerjee took a hardline stance on the issue, arguing "the cost of putting a terrorist in a stress position [standing or sitting in an uncomfortable way] versus losing 3,000 or 4,000 or 100 American lives is a no-brainer." Banerjee also argued America must be willing to use unpopular methods such as waterboarding - which he does not consider torture - because of the tough nature of today's war.

Walker, however, didn't see waterboarding as a necessary tool.

"I don't think the fact that the people that we are fighting are savage means that we should be savage," Walker said, adding that the interrogators he had spoken with were not in favor of waterboarding, and that the FBI was largely against the use of the tactic.

Continued...

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