Sunday, August 30, 2009

Torture Works

How a Detainee Became an Asset

It was through waterboarding.

Great points from Allahpundit:

In another universe it’d be a narrative-shatterer but in this one it’s noise, for the simple reason that nothing — nothing — will dent the absolutism of the anti-”torture” side. Any fair-minded supporter of enhanced interrogation would concede that it’s morally problematic, that the info extracted may be unreliable, that it’s susceptible to abuse; opponents concede nothing, up to and including (or especially) the fact that sometimes it might just work. They can’t. If they did, they’d have to join the rest of us in honestly struggling with whether the ends of possibly saving innocent lives is justified by the means of inflicting suffering on someone in custody. And given how most Americans would resolve that dilemma — and how Obama’s interrogation team will surely resolve it if, god forbid, the situation ever presents itself — that’s not something they have any incentive to do.

Torture works. Sometimes. And sometimes interrogation techniques that aren't torture work. The trick is figuring out how far you have to go to get information that is useful and still be able to sleep at night. But as Allahpundit notes, this is not a dilemma liberals have; they are safe and secure in their philosophy, not because it makes them safe, but because there are people who struggle with this problem and sometimes do unpleasant things to prisoners to get information that makes us all safe.