Tell Us What You Know

So we now learn that, aside from leading the US in to a war based on lies, for weapons they knew didn't exist, it also turns out... the lies were formulated based on evidence gained from - wait for it - torture! These guys literally couldn't get it more wrong it they were the mayors of wrongtown.

The first, best reason against torture remains operative: Because you're the United States, asshole.

The second, slightly less good reason against torture has been confirmed: Gee, if you torture people in to confessing what they know about Al Qaeda and Iraq, they'll go and tell you something about... Al Qaeda and Iraq! What a magnificent discovery! Somebody, call Amnesty International! I'm sure they'll stop all their kvetching now that we know!

Some would look at this and say this is a good argument against torture. I agree, unless we're talking about the Bush Administration. They obviously don't care about rule #1 (see above) and they really, really wanted their war. So obviously, torture was a necessary step in getting there. In this, Matthew Yglesias and I agree.

I'm sure someone will be along shortly to tell me why I'm overreacting, but given the news that the US is torturing people in gulags - yup, honest-to-God gulags - coupled with all this, it's hard to see what the hell the point is some days. When the US is being led by objectively evil men who make the Communists in Beijing seem bad only by degree, we've already lost.

I await illumination on why our gulags are somehow superior to the ones Solzhenitsyn wrote about. I'd love to learn how our torture is better than what the Imperial Japanese used to dish out.

And of course, I'd love to know how any of this makes anyone, anywhere, any safer.