Friday, May 01, 2009

Krauthammer: It Isn't OK to Torture Unless You Think You Need to Torture, in Which Case It's Totally OK



From the liberal Washington Post, a newspaper which simply can't publish enough justifications for torture, more moral clarity from the Krauthammer:

The second exception to the no-torture rule is the extraction of information from a high-value enemy in possession of high-value information likely to save lives. This case lacks the black-and-white clarity of the ticking time bomb scenario. We know less about the length of the fuse or the nature of the next attack. But we do know the danger is great. (One of the "torture memos" noted that the CIA had warned that terrorist "chatter" had reached pre-9/11 levels.) We know we must act but have no idea where or how -- and we can't know that until we have information. Catch-22.


Justifications for torture include, in other words, vague suspicions, feeling like you're missing out on something, wanting your detainee to tell you more.

Conclusion: torture if you must. And you must.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

These people are really sick. Did you see the Pew poll about how if you're a regular churchgoer you're more likely to favor, um, enhanced interrogation techniques? Pretty interesting considering the Christian religion is based on the resurrection of a guy who was tortured.

Karen Zipdrive said...

I noticed that same correlation between churchy Christians and torture diggers.
C R E E P Y .

Civic Center said...

In the case of Krauthammmer and the rest of the Washington Post, the torture fans tend to be Jewish. Don't just blame the Christians, kids.

Anonymous said...

I love the way these torture defenders, who happily accuse "liberals" of moral relativism, are now practicing their own brand of moral relativism by saying "Torture is wrong EXCEPT when..."

Anonymous said...

I'm not "blaming" anybody; I'm just quoting a Pew poll. Don't recall if it covered Jews.

Anonymous said...

For the record, here are the demographics of the Pew poll: "The analysis is based on a Pew Research Center survey of 742 American adults conducted April 14-21. It did not include analysis of groups other than white evangelicals, white non-Hispanic Catholics, white mainline Protestants, and the religiously unaffiliated, because the sample size was too small."

blogenfreude said...

Who Would Jesus Waterboard?

Distributorcap said...

i think krauthammer recieved a waterboard for his bar mitzvah