On Torture

I’ve been staying out of this discussion because I am not sure how to articulate my personal feelings and it’s just not an area I feel confident that I have all the facts. However, I thought this point was too right on not to it share. I stole it entirely from Andrew Sullivan’s Daily Dish on Why Is Torture Worse Than Warfare, Ctd.

Christopher Orr makes an important point:

…when a group of combatants are badly outnumbered, or surrounded, or otherwise very, very unlikely to win a conflict, they have a considerable incentive to surrender–but only if they believe they will subsequently be treated with mercy. That is why individuals, and nations, surrender. If, by contrast, a group of combatants believes that, by surrendering, they are only making themselves vulnerable to further harm–specifically torture and/or death–they have no incentive at all to stop fighting.

Though I still don’t think there is any way to prosecute those responsible without further tearing apart this country. Add to that my feeling that the list has to be too damn long to even fathom to true cost of the impact of prosecution especially in time, money and humanity.