Open up a second front on Rumsfeld's torture policy
Today Andrew Sullivan has posted a clip of Miles O'Brien interviewing a retired US Army Major General. John Batiste did a superb job of reiterating the need for his country to maintain the moral high-ground. The moral imperative to not torture should, by itself, be enough to convince people that it is an evil. The torture proponents though seem to make a utilitarian sort of bargain where they say, "okay, torture is bad, but it could save lives!"
Miles does a version of that argument in the clip and Batiste countered by maintaining the need for the moral high ground. Again, I think that Batiste is correct that the moral imperative ought to stand on its own. That said, I think that a populace kept in fear (as the American one has been since 9/11) may be swayed by the "torture saves lives" argument.
The truth is though, that, at least according one recent Time article, torture doesn't work. That's right, torture only got us all those dumb false alarms back '02. Remember Tom Ridge telling people to buy duct tape and stuff? Yeah, all those stupid things were a product of torture.
I've read most (if not all) of Sullivan's anti-torture posts, and I've never seen him use this argument (maybe he has though). I can understand why he might not want to use it, as it might imply that there is not a moral injunction against it. The way I see it though is that the torture gang considers its tactics a "necessary evil" and the reply has been to play up the evil. I think that the argument is strengthened when we say that torture is evil and completely useless.
Just my $.o2 in fighting against a new gulag.
Tags: Andrew Sullivan, Torture.
Miles does a version of that argument in the clip and Batiste countered by maintaining the need for the moral high ground. Again, I think that Batiste is correct that the moral imperative ought to stand on its own. That said, I think that a populace kept in fear (as the American one has been since 9/11) may be swayed by the "torture saves lives" argument.
The truth is though, that, at least according one recent Time article, torture doesn't work. That's right, torture only got us all those dumb false alarms back '02. Remember Tom Ridge telling people to buy duct tape and stuff? Yeah, all those stupid things were a product of torture.
I've read most (if not all) of Sullivan's anti-torture posts, and I've never seen him use this argument (maybe he has though). I can understand why he might not want to use it, as it might imply that there is not a moral injunction against it. The way I see it though is that the torture gang considers its tactics a "necessary evil" and the reply has been to play up the evil. I think that the argument is strengthened when we say that torture is evil and completely useless.
Just my $.o2 in fighting against a new gulag.
Tags: Andrew Sullivan, Torture.
posted by Dan at 12:05 AM
<< Home