Would You Talk?

The slithering is going to get really slimey in the coming days as the glow of return from the "We Love Everyone Tour" begins to fade. After embracing every scum-bag anti-American dictator on the planet, the Messiah now must take the moral high ground back for the nation. We've got to track down the evil torturers of the nice guys from Tora Bora and bring them to justice.

Anyone who has watched a couple of episodes of "24" knows the problem. There is a certified bad guy in your grasp. There is a known plot to destroy the (insert disastrous target of your choice here). The death and destruction will occur in a few short hours. Only the bad guy can disclose the location of the weapon, trigger, launch vehicle, whatever. So, what do you do?

Apparently the new Big Boss thinks that you must maintain your decorum and invite the terrorist to tea to develop rapport. Anything more medieval would damage our international reputation and create a backlash in the Muslim world generating more terrorist activities. A few hundred American lives is small price to pay for maintaining our dignity.

One of the biggest arguments being surfaced now is that torture doesn't work. It doesn't gain data. What you get is unreliable. The bad guy will lie. How then do you explain this memo coming from the Messiah's own chosen Director of National Intelligence:

Dear Me, They Have Rights Too

Or these quotes from various CIA and administration sources:

More Effective Than Not

Or the details from this forgotten CIA report:

Fuggedabout Da Facts

Yes, I will stipulate that sometimes a trained resistor will make stuff up and misdirect you to stop the discomfort. But, if there is a chance that something will be disclosed to stifle the plot, don't you need to take it?

How many really despicable people have you ever known? Hopefully not a lot, but I'm willing to bet you've encountered a couple. Were they really honorable? Were they courageous? Were they internally strong and principled folks? Hardly.

They are mud-crawlers without scruples. They are more than likely willing to take an easy way out whenever they can. They've already demonstrated that they would prefer to kill innocents by remote control rather than face an armed military defender. Why would I believe that at least some of them wouldn't give up the plot to save themselves?

It's worth the effort. And, even if the intel gained isn't reliable, there would be a certain level of satisfaction in knowing that the sleaze bucket was made uncomfortable for a while before being issued his Koran and ACLU lawyer.