An irrelevant question

Now that the DoJ Inspector General's report has been released, we're into another argument with the XVP. He claims the report shows that the "enhanced interrogation" yielded information that prevented attacks and saved lives.

It does not say that. At most, it says it's impossible to tell whether it did or not, because the record is not clear when and from whom certain information was obtained relative to torture techniques. FBI interrogators themselves have said they got more information from certain key suspects before the CIA came in and began torturing them. Even Bush's former adviser on counterterrorism, Frances Townsend, says the report is inconclusive.

But that is an irrelevant question in the debate over using such techniques. If they are wrong, they are wrong. And they are wrong: they violate our own moral standards and our international agreements. They reduce us to the moral level of our enemies, or worse, and they had a devastating effect on our standing in the world. For every life saved by information gained this way, incalculable lives were lost to the jihadists recruited in response to their outrage.

So whether they were effective or not is simply irrelevant -- at least to those of us who think the moral position should prevail. To the XVP and those under his sway for the last 8 years, the ends justified the means.

That is un-American, Mr. XVP. We are better than that.

Ralph