On The Question of Torture

If you had Osama bin Laden's right hand man in custody, and you wanted to know what other evil things the man had in the works, most likely, you would do almost anything to get the information needed to save lives of innocent civilians.

I saw this movie once, I can't quite remember the name of it right now, it was about the Marquis De Sade, and the priest who was responsible for suppressing the horrifying things that the man wrote. The priest who seemed like a decent sort at the beginning of the movie, eventually became the villain, as every time he tried to outwit his evil adversary, he became more like the evil he was trying to erase. At the end of the movie, the horrors this priest committed in the name of decency were so heinous, that there was no way to distinguish him from the devil he wanted to defeat.

You and I would do just about anything we could to save innocent victims from a horrible death, but we could not become the very thing we despised, and inflict horror on other innocent people.

Having an exemption from torture for the CIA gives these black ops guys carte blanche to commit crimes that you and I would not engage in, and not face accountability for these acts. If I trusted the CIA to use discretion when applying torture, the policy might be a little more palatable. But these guys can't tell the difference between the Iraqi who sells hummus on the corner from the guy who sells explosives in the black market. There should be laws that prohibit people from being cruel to others, because good judgment is not often witnessed in the armed forces or in the intelligence agencies.

And then there's the argument that the President ought to have the power to do whatever is necessary to protect the American public. From my perspective, this President believed that a completely defeated Iraq was a threat to American security. He believed that Iraq was about to send drones with biological weapons to New Jersey. He believed his intelligence people when they told him that Iraq was trying to purchase nuclear materials. I think his judgment is flawed, and that this President should always have a second opinion.

And 65 percent of Americans agree with me.

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