What is written at Marginal Revolution encapsulates my view as to why the position of the administration on making “exceptions on torture for extraordinary circumstances” is dead wrong:

But it does not follow from the “ticking time bomb” argument that torture should be legal. The problem with making torture legal is that the government will abuse its powers. I do not trust the government, any government, to use this power responsibly. Leviathan must be heavily restrained, especially when it comes to torture.

Here is where economics can make a contribution. By making torture illegal we are raising the price of torture but we are not raising the price to infinity. If the President or the head of the CIA thinks that torture is required to stop the ticking time bomb then they ought to approve it knowing full well that they face possible prosecution. Only if the price of torture is very high can we expect that it will be used only in the most absolutely urgent of circumstances.

The very fact that there is a discussion of “torture lite” being taken seriously shows how far the definitions of “honor” and “morality” have descended among those who spend their time talking more than anyone else about the concepts of honor and morality.

What is most disgusting about the advocacy of “torture lite” is that it often comes from those who express outrage when our troops are treated with anything less than respect bordering on idolatry. Would they call it “torture lite” when perpetrated on our troops by our enemies?

What, it’s only “torture lite” when we are practicing it on those who are the “bad guys”?

Who decides who are the “bad guys”?

Those in power, with no independent judicial review and no habeas corpus?

Right, that works… to keep those in power in power.

Did we learn nothing in the 20th century?

We would regret this, maybe not today, and maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of our lives.

By making torture acceptable in any way in our laws, we are dishonoring ourselves and those who fight for us more than any unbathed dipstick who burns a flag while shouting, “Bush is worse than Hitler!” could ever do.

This brings to mind a series of books by Susan R. Matthews set in a science-fiction universe where there is interstellar travel and a government that has institutionalized torture as a means of interrogation and execution. The torture is strictly regulated by “the Bench” in judicial system that is a Constitutional originalists’ dream. Torture had prescribed “levels” and if a confession for a certain type of crime (for example, a misdemeanor) was not obtained after the level of torture set for that crime, the suspect was released. The result was a nightmare society where torture was used to get “confessions” that frequently had little to do with the truth and more to do with the desires of the torturer.

I was taught that cruelty is always wrong, and that a moral, honorable man did not add to the cruelty already overwhelmingly present in the world.

Cheapening the price of torture devalues our honor, which is beyond price and all too easily stained.

—

Link to the post at Marginal Revolution from Jane Galt at Asymmetrical Information.

Line about regret was stolen from Casablanca for those who don’t appreciate the film enough to recognize it.