"we lost the torture debate completely" [View all]

[phantom power]

I can’t disagree with Marc Thiessen on this: we lost the torture debate completely.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who chairs the Senate intelligence committee, launched a six-year, 6,000-page, $40 million investigation into the CIA interrogation program, with the goal of convincing Americans that a) the program did not work and that b) enhanced interrogations were wrong and should never again be permitted.

She failed on all counts.

Just before Christmas, a Post poll revealed the American people’s final verdict. The vast majority agree with the CIA that these techniques were necessary and justified. A majority think that Feinstein should never have released her report. And — most importantly — 76 percent said they would do it again to protect the country.

Not much else to say. They’ve had more than thirteen years to sell the “would you do it to stop the next ticking time bomb” scenario to America, and we bought it wholesale. At some point we’ll use these techniques again, and we’ll cheer when we hear about it.

If we hear about it. The lesson here seems to be to make sure hearing about it never happens when we do torture the next time, because we will.

http://www.balloon-juice.com/2015/01/06/beaten-soundly-on-torture/