PJ Media

I have to say some of the comments here wouldn’t sound amiss coming from you know who’s willing executioners. It is a matter of human ethics (Christian or otherwise but I find it hard to believe Jesus was in favor of torture!) but it is also a matter of practicality. To take the ethics first. Once you buy into the administration’s position that it’s ok for Americans to torture people we’ve identified as terrorists, well because we’re the good guys, then you’ve said it was ok for the Gestapo to torture French resistance workers or for French paras to torture Algerians during their war of independance. Or Russians to torture Afghans or Chechens, or Serbs to torture Kosovars. There’s no end to it. And please spare us the juvenile I had a tougher time at scout camp nonsense. On the practicality front most people are going to tell you whatever you want if you torture them regardless of how fictional it is which is why you had all those ridiculous confessions during the Stalinist show trials. Then of course you can’t keep it secret so in today’s wired world it’s being blasted everywhere and thereby totally undermining our legitimacy. In short it’s deeply unethical which why we’ve deemed it criminal for years, and counterproductive in practical terms.