You remember about four or five months ago when Daily Kos was ablaze with diaries either supporting or excoriating President Obama for blocking the release of photographs depicting torture of war prisoners at various detention sites? That decision came amongst several others by the Obama Administration that signaled a willingness to "look forward" and ignore prosecutions for Bush officials who authorized the practice -- as well as a policy that sought to extend some of the worst abuses of power by the Bush Administration (specifically, indefinite detention).
One of the key arguments used by those opposed Obama's unwillingness to initiate full investigations of torture was that a majority of Americans believed torture was never acceptable under any circumstances. For example, this ABC/Washington Post poll conducted days before Obama was inaugurated showed that 58% of Americans opposed using torture to interrogate terrorism suspects.
Those days seem long gone. A new poll conducted by the Pew Research Center now shows the opposite result. 54% of Americans believe that torture is either often (19%) or sometimes (35%) justified to gain information from terrorism suspects, compared to 41% who say it's rarely (16%) or never (25%) justified.
I think this poll shows me two things: One, it illustrates just how far the issue of torture has fallen out of public and media consciousness. Ever since the health care and Afghanistan War debates began to ramp up to fever pitch several months ago, torture investigations took a backseat to addressing those other priorities. Just look at where the question and result about torture ended up in the poll itself: Almost dead last. That isn't to say that health care reform and the Afghanistan War aren't very important issues to discuss (they are), but you'd think that a poll showing that a majority of Americans now say they either "often" or "sometimes" support torture would be a red-letter finding at the very forefront of such a survey.
Two, I think there is a very strong possibility that this result is highly correlated with the Obama Administration's policies vis-a-vis torture and indefinite, preventive detention, as well as its inaction on pressing for full torture investigations. When the President of the United States says, unequivocally, that he believes waterboarding is torture, and yet instead follows a course of action that demands that we "look forward" and prevent prosecutions from taking place -- all while preventing all war prisoners not captured on the battlefield from getting fair, criminal trials and attempting to institute indefinite detention for those whom the Department of Justice cannot yet obtain a conviction -- then we have a major discrepancy in the public's opinion about the legality of torture. That's why a majority of citizens in this country now think it's either "often" or "sometimes" okay to use on terrorism suspects.
Regardless of your opinion of whether or not you agree with the President on his decision to escalate the War in Afghanistan (I don't), there is no reason -- none -- that anybody should be justifying the use of torture.
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Update: A lot of commenters have disagreed with my conclusion, stating that it's fallacious to blame Obama for the fact that a majority of Americans now view torture as acceptable in at least "some" circumstances. I would just like to clarify that I don't think Obama bears sole responsibility for this sad poll result. There are a lot of players that I think are culpable -- specifically, members of Congress who openly oppose investigating torture, and members of the media who defend against investigations and endlessly prattle on and on about how torture is just "cable catnip". But that does not change the fact that:
- The Obama Administration has blocked investigations of Bush officials for their role in torturing prisoners.
- The Obama Administration explicitly advocated "moving forward" and took many steps to prevent the crimes of the previous Administration from being fully transparent -- like blocking the release of torture photographs -- and even extending some of the worst Bush Administration policies -- like indefinite detention.
When considering the above two facts, coupled with the fact that the the public slid all the way from a 58% majority opposed to torture, to at least a 54% who support it either "often" or "sometimes" -- I think it is equally fallacious to suggest that the Obama Administration bears no responsibility for that.