Like Fingernails on a Slate Blackboard

Slate.com has run a number of pieces lately bearing on the torture scandal. In the last paragraph of Today's Papers Richard Cohen of the Washington Post comes out four-square against torture. In Cohen's opinion, and mine, the efficacy of torture isn't relevant to the question. Torture is wrong and it shouldn't be used.

I have often been struck by the extreme examples proposed by advocates of torture. You know the sort of thing. Suppose a terrorist group (or a Communist cell, or agents of a foreign country, or aliens from another planet) has hidden a nuclear device in Madison Square Garden (or Yankee Stadium, or downtown Chicago), and we have captured a member of the group. In order to prevent thousands and thousands of deaths, wouldn't we use any means we could?

Well, maybe, and then again, maybe not. One of my problems with this scenario is that, in my opinion, if we knew enough about our captive to the sure that he was a member of the group, and to be really sure that he knew where the device was hidden, we wouldn't need any additional information from him. If we knew that much, we'd know where the group had hidden the bomb. (See, in order to have all that information, we'd have to have someone planted in the group.)

Moreover, having this captive where we could get out the old alligator clips and the crank-operated generator wouldn't change anything. We'd still have to try to evacuate New York or Chicago or wherever it was, because we couldn't be sure of obtaining enough information before the kaboom.

Anyway, I think it's just better all around not to mess with exceptions and gray areas. Torture is wrong. Torture is prohibited by law. Federal agents, military members, intelligence operatives, and Vice-Presidents are all subject to that law. Through Today's Papers you can find a link to Cohen's entire article.

Dahlia Lithwick also takes an absolutist position on torture. She is appalled that the debate has come down to whether or not torture works. It ought to be about whether it is wrong. And we know it is. I think it's a little much to say that we are all torturers, but we do seem to have become a little blase about the matter. One of my side questions is whether we'd be less insensitive if the people being tortured were nice-looking Americans.

More, much more, later.