[kellynla]

"My column also pointed out the contemptible hypocrisy of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who is feigning outrage now about techniques that she knew about and did nothing to stop at the time."

[Eric in the Ozarks]

She's contemptible, all right.

[nuconvert]

incorrect link for Krauthammer piece

[Waco]

Were the folks at the WTC tortured enough to suit the pig RATS?

[668 - Neighbor of the Beast]

Well if I were the gatekeeper at Dark Fantasies of Power-Crazed and Morally Deficient Authoritarians Club, I’d give Krauthammer a free pass every Saturday, but he’s right as usual here. Those who criticize Krauthammer on this are engaging in another sort of fantasy: that it’s a mathematically perfect world and we can always run messy situations through ideal formulas and come up with perfect solutions. When even Gandhi would have twisted their arms for information about mass terror plots.

[Road Warrior ‘04]

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/05/15/the_torture_debate_continued_96496.html

[rwa265]

“those favoring harsh interrogation at the time included Alan Dershowitz, Mark Bowden and Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter.”

I remember how amazed I was that even the great civil rights advocate Alan Dershowitz favored EIT.

[CPOSharky]

The no-torture principle is not inviolable.

How many exceptions are there to "...Shall not be infringed."?

Certainly the doofusses who can find penumbras and emanations to justify killing your own baby can find justification for hurting people who want to indescriminately KILL us.

[JasonC]

No, there are no exceptions. McCain and Rabin and Pelosi and Krauthammer can all join the ranks of the torturers and be damned any time they please, but the moral law - and it is a law, not a suggestion - does not move one inch for their weaknesses.

The power that evil men have in this world does not extend to damning us. It is a mistake to grant them that power. No earthly goal being sought through hellish evil is worth the candle, and no merit or worth of any kind can survive the procedure. If you justify torture as expedient you will soon find murder even more expedient. If you find those expedient directed at evil enemies you will find it even more expedient to not need to bother about being sure of that. We know where that whole process goes, and it goes straight to hell.

The whole idea that the secret of power lies in evil or that wars can be won in torture chambers, is false from top to bottom. Those attempting it do not deserve "saving" and their achieving their ends is not choiceworthy itself. Nothing any of you say or do will ever force any of us to support torture. Instead you simply make yourself an enemy of all mankind. (A group that can be as restricted as you please; you can leave it at any time to enlist in the legions of hell).