Quote:
Originally Posted by UGAalum94
I think the overall effectiveness is going to be impossible to actually evaluate. I think KSigRC is right about how arguments are made to the general population, and so I think the initial linked story is pretty meaningless because it's easy to refute using a similar standard of evidence: this guy says it doesn't work, but this guy says it does, etc.
|
I think this is demonstrably false, which is exactly my point.
It's easy to demonstrate that torture "works" in very limited scenarios - of course, every once in a while it will produce sound information. It's also easy to "prove" that it is wholly ineffective - just show the intelligence garnered from waterboarding then compare it to the ill will (which is rampant) garnered from violating our Constitutional guarantees. There's nearly no chance torture was worth it - if it were, wouldn't we have heard about all the apocalyptic terrorism prevented by Bush? Come on.
The danger is that it's easy to say "TORTURE WORKS! IT DID HERE SPECIFICALLY!" and harder to say ". . . but we've fucked ourselves in the long-term, and acted on dozens of unactionable tips based on shitty intelligence." Which makes dumb people luuuuuurve torture, even though it's absolutely the most un-American thing possible.
Threaded Mode
