Michael Gerson admits that coercive interrogation is a mistake, but thinks waterboarding presented a difficult dilemma despite the fact that we’ve prosecuted people for it in the past. David Broder is similarly happy the torture is done, but thinks that enforcing the law is scapegoating. Moving away from the relative moderates, Outlook had an embarrassing article that put forth a scenario where we captured Bin Laden and he had vital information about multiple nuclear weapons that were to be used to blow up American cities. Tom Clancy and the writers of 24 wouldn’t run with such a ridiculous scenario, why is it on the front page of the Outlook section? Happily Eugene Robinson, who received a well deserved Pulitzer, does make the obvious point that torture is a crime that deserves punishment.
The basic logic here is straightforward. American elected leaders and their appointees have the right to be wrong, to break the law when we’re frightened. Richard Cohen made this argument explicitly, albeit in a manner completely lacking in self-awareness. Those who favor unaccountability often also praise the pardoning of Nixon who clearly stated his claim that if the President does it, it’s not illegal. The fact that these measures violate international law is probably not even a secondary consideration here, after all, who is going to make us face accountability? Spain isn’t really powerful enough to do more than keep people out of Europe . None of this is especially surprising and I suspect that despite the extraordinary nature of 9/11 the principle of the executive accountable only to the electorate isn’t going to go away.
This is not to say that prosecutions are the best way to sway public opinion. Mark Danner argued in the Post that investigations, not prosecutions, are what’s needed to keep torture from returning. He may well be right, enforcing the law is just, but that doesn’t mean it will always be the best tactic. This will not be an easy battle, as John Sides shows public opposition to torture has been dropping in recent month. Even so, a thin majority to support investigation (Hat tip: Ackerman). The support levels for torture scare me, but it does provide an opening to release all the information we can find that the CIA hasn’t yet illegally destroyed.
All in all, I pray we can win the fight on torture, but I do not believe that the self-correcting measures on American hegemony can prevent future disastrous mistakes. A few months ago I attended a great talk by Spencer Ackerman that essentially argued that the tools of military dominance inevitably corrupt and that unless we’re willing to put some of those tools down the cycle will keep repeating itself. I have no problem with American military superiority, but I think liberals will better spend their energy directing resources away from supremacy than in trying to direct the tools of military supremacy to the greater good of the world. If torture is giving our elites this much trouble, how are we going to manage the tougher calls?
Comments