Does Torture Work?

William Pfaff:

The torture issue now has largely been turned into one of whether it “works.” The question of law was dealt with by the Bush administration by saying that existing law is outmoded and yields to presidential prerogatives and national security interests. The argument cited against torture is that the damage it did to America’s reputation, and the aid and comfort it gave the enemy, outweighed its claimed advantages.

You can say that the Bush-Cheney position reflects the situation in much contemporary philosophy, which has renounced classical, religious, and other appeals to natural law or “eternal” or innate principles, in its attempt to establish a modern theory of justice. Bush-Cheney-CIA empiricism asserts that torture “works.” The Bush opponent, who shares this philosophical position, must claim that torture doesn’t work, or that the costs are too high.

I am reminded of a cruel joke. A man asks a woman seated next to him at a dinner if she would sleep with him for a million dollars. With whatever hesitation or flirtatiousness, she ends saying yes she would. He then asks if she would do so for five dollars. She angrily asks if he thinks she is a prostitute. He replies, “we have established what you are, we are now dickering over the price.”

Once upon a time, conservative Americans in such a compromised position would have feared for their mortal souls. Now they just yell.

     posted 30 April 2009 by Michael Scott Moore