By now you've heard all about it: the 24 inspired scenario in which there is a nuclear or chemical or biological weapon and some terrorist knows where it is. You have this terrorist in custody and the only way to get them to talk is to torture them illegally.
Let's, for the sake of argument, ignore the fact that this entire theory is completely ridiculous and sucks in every possible way (most importantly because torture does not work and even if it works should never ever be used by anyone, no exceptions).
Let's say, as a thought experiment of sorts, that it would work. Torturing someone illegally who has a weapon that is going to hurt a lot of people would get them to tell you exactly where it is and how to disarm it. A weapon in the hands of these maniacs would be a bad thing and we need to do whatever works even if it's torture, which, according to everyone lately, would work.
What you might not have realized is: we had a ticking time bomb scenario just recently... and the Bush administration didn't do anything.
Here is the guy who used to be president, in October, 2002:
The Iraqi regime has violated all of those obligations. It possesses and produces chemical and biological weapons. It is seeking nuclear weapons. It has given shelter and support to terrorism and practices terror against its own people.
[...]
On September 11, 2001, America felt its vulnerability -- even to threats that gather on the other side of the earth. We resolved then, and we are resolved today, to confront every threat, from any source, that could bring sudden terror and suffering to America.
[...]
We know that the regime has produced thousands of tons of chemical agents, including mustard gas, sarin nerve gas, and VX nerve gas. Saddam Hussein also has experience in using chemical weapons. He has ordered chemical attacks on Iran, and on more than forty villages in his own country. These actions killed or injured at least 20,000 people, more than six times the number of people who died in the attacks of September 11.
[...]
Knowing these realities, America must not ignore the threat gathering against us. Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof -- the smoking gun -- that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud(!!!).
Imminent death and stuff like that! See? Mushroom clouds and attacks on Iran and chemical weapons and the end of humanity and life as we know it in the hands of that tyrant.
So then we invaded Iraq.
We'd already started torturing somewhere around 2002. The memos had been written justifying it. We tortured to try to link Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda. We tortured for fun - to play games and practice on at least two people. We tortured even after charges against real live terrorists had to be dropped BECAUSE WE TORTURED them and therefore their statements and other evidence could not be used. We tortured people like KSM - the apparent mastermind of the 9/11 attack, and he confessed to the 9/11 attack... and tons of others that didn't exist. We tortured terrorists to find information about other terrorists, knowing that we could not actually use the links to the others in court that were obtained through torture. So we've kept most of these people in jail with no access to trial.
So... why didn't we torture to find the "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq, if the entire world was going to DIE FOREVER REALLY REALLY SOON? We'd already started imprisoning Iraqis as POWs. We were in the process of getting people in the Iraqi Republican Guard to turn and help us instead of Hussein. Surely someone had to know where Saddam Hussein was "hiding" these "weapons of mass destruction".
And according to Bush, just so I'm clear here: not only were Iraqis in danger, but our allies were (presumably Israel and others), and all the people in the Coalition who were in Iraq were in danger.
And um... THE US MILITARY that was IN IRAQ. At any time someone who supported Hussein, some Ba'athist or Iranian or Sunni Muslim could have gotten these "weapons of mass destruction" that Saddam presumably left scattered all over Iraq and used them against our military.
So, given that we were already torturing, why would we not torture to find them? Presumably millions of people were in danger including troops from all over the world, our allies, and even worse, our enemies who could have easily blamed any WMD attack on US rather than Iraqis.
To all the people justifying torture, just answer that for me. If torture is so necessary and works and will produce information then why have we never used it to try to find weapons and keep "terrorists" (since that's what we call people who aren't happy we illegally invaded their country these days) from hurting everyone?
I'm pretty sure I already know the answer.
Nothing was gained from this. Nothing could have been. We went into this place, we hurt these people, they hurt our troops. Thousands of people are dead. Thousands of families won't be the same anymore. There's no way to know how many people have developed PTSD from the war and from torture. But we do know this: neither of those policies helped a damn thing.