In the wake of the Senate releasing the CIA Torture Report the airwaves are filled with arguments about whether the procedures used were effective and whether they were needed at all.
My take is that the media arguments rarely state the real questions we should be asking.
(A pdf copy of the report may be downloaded from this link.)
If it worked, I might have some hesitation. There is a lot of noise on both sides of that question. I downloaded a copy of the entire report, and have yet to finish it, but from what I have read so far, the efficacy of the procedures were uncertain at best, Dick Cheney's bald and snarling assertions to the contrary.
But I firmly believe that we are a better nation than that.
I believe the efficacy of torturing is the wrong question.
I believe the question is; Are we like them? Or are we better than them? Do we let them set the example for behavior for us? Or do we set the example for behavior for them.
Do we take the moral high ground and set an example for the world, or do we take the moral low ground and become as they are; undisciplined thugs.
I know there are differences of opinion on this question. And I know the pro and the con are equally firm in their opinions.
But in my opinion every fiber of my being says we Americans are the white hats, and play by the book of civilized behavior. We did that, mostly, in WWII, dealing with evil acts every bit as vile as those you describe and we all know do happen too often. I can remember that myself, having lived through it.
We still won, and came out looking like the saviors of the world while doing it.
That they are the black hats and play by an improvised and impulsive savagery does not mean, again in my opinion, that we should act as if we were uncivilized.
My thought is that we cannot project a better way of life if we stoop to their level. I believe, firmly, that if we stoop to the level of savagery practiced against us, we may win a battle or two, but they win the war.
They would have morphed us into them.