Quote:
Originally Posted by agzg
Water is wet.
|
Well, I mean, I have absolutely no doubt that waterboarding did indeed reveal pertinent and usable information about threats to national security while in use during the Bush regime, at least at some point . . . Chaney might be a nutjob, but he's not an idiot, and his push is undoubtedly backed by 'facts' of some sort. The sheer amount of torture means they probably got something, even if only by the law of large numbers.
The real issue is whether acquiring this information was worth the rest - the deterioration of core American/Constitutional values, the bad publicity/face toward the radical Muslim world, steeling the resolve of enemy combatants, etc., and much like Kevin, I openly doubt the gains were worth it.
So yeah - I don't think it's nearly as simple as "water is wet", and in that vein it feels counterproductive for this FBI agent to give a ringing dismissal (on what appear to be very valid grounds) while still leaving the door open for Chaney et al. to smash a foot in with specific instances of success. This is really why idiots think that "enemies of America" deserve torture etc. - the spin is better controlled by the other side.
More simply put: "It doesn't work" is an intellectual argument, not an intuitive argument, and for idiots (who are the people we need to actually convince) it is simply rebutted by even a single instance of it "working."
Threaded Mode
