Reply #97: There is no need to mollify the far right, ThomCat.... [View All]

[davekriss]

...as Hillary is (undeserved) symbol for everything they fear. The "far right" wouldn't vote for Hillary in a million years. Tactically it would have been better to affirm the far left and deny use of state-sponsored torture under every imaginable circumstance.

I think rather than a tactic, Hillary is expressing her geniune position on the matter. She is saying that, if we were under the ticking time bomb scenario and thousands might die if the bomb isn't found in time, then torture of a highly probable suspect is justified. However, the ticking time bomb scenario has been thoroughly refuted by both logic and empirical observation.

Given that the tortured are likely to say whatever they think the torturer wants to here -- i.e., "2 + 2 = 5", anything to make the pain stop -- then valuable resources are just as likely, more likely, to go on wild goose chases that take them further from actually finding the bomb.

The brutal fact is state-sponsored torture has nothing to do with obtaining information, whether by the United States or the old Soviet Union, or by any number of client states of either nation. It has always been about instilling terror into the population from which the tortured is snatched and into which the broken body is tossed back. It is meant to break down the social glue of trust and security in the target population, thereby reducing the aggregate will to resist the agenda of the state conducting the torture.