Senator Feinstein said on PBS Newshour that the "big finding of the report is that torture does not work." More generally, one hears the following: The CIA enhanced interrogation techniques were terrible, immoral, grossly inconsistent with our values and can not be permitted in a civilized society. And what's more, they don't work.
Huh? The notation that torture (we'll call it that for simplicity sake) doesn't work undermines the main point, doesn't it? It implies that if torture did work, then well, maybe, that morality and civilization stuff could be brushed aside. OR, it's sort of a parting shot at the CIA goons, as if to say they're the gang that couldn't shoot straight, who probably just enjoy doing harmful things to people.
We should presume that, at the very least, our intelligence officials possess cumulatively a resaonable amount of expertise, and act in the good faith belief that approaches they take will yield useful information. And to be intellectually, politically and morally honest, the authors of the Report and those who defend it should be conceding, at least for purposes of discussion, that sometimes torture does help accelerate the process of getting useful, important and potentially life-saving information from hardened and despicable terrorists, but declare that despite this, we should never allow it.
No comments:
Post a Comment