Torture has been a hot topic lately. But a disturbingly large portion of the dialogue has been about whether or not it works, whether or not using torture is in the best interests of our country. This article in the Atlantic is a great example of this trend.
Arguments about utility are dangerous things though. Torture is wrong. Full stop. It has no place in a civilized society. Full stop. End of discussion, or at least so it should be.
Otherwise, if we're really going to consider the utility of immoral acts, we can't stop at torture. What about murder? Sure, killing people is wrong, but what if it's useful? It's hard to doubt that America would be a more efficient place if, instead of paying to imprison inmates, we just executed the lot. Maybe we should put together commissions, as well, to determine if it might not be more efficient to round up all those people living on the public dole and see if, at the very least, we couldn't send them to an island somewhere to fend for themselves. I hear Australia is nice this time of year.
Torture is morally wrong. Anyone who employs it is a reprehensible, disgusting war criminal no better than Saddam Hussein. That a sizable portion of the country thinks that the possibility of torturing people should be a topic of debate shows how close we are to undoing the bonds of civilization that hold us together. There are few greater ironies in the world than that torture's supporters in this country are often the same who profess to be concerned about America's moral degredation.