Tortured Reasoning - Part 2
Charles Krauthammer does not share in Ross Douthat’s moral dilemma regarding torture.
Notable Quote:
Let’s take the textbook case. Ethics 101: A terrorist has planted a nuclear bomb in New York City. It will go off in one hour. A million people will die. You capture the terrorist. He knows where it is. He’s not talking.
Question: If you have the slightest belief that hanging this man by his thumbs will get you the information to save a million people, are you permitted to do it?
Now, on most issues regarding torture, I confess tentativeness and uncertainty. But on this issue, there can be no uncertainty: Not only is it permissible to hang this miscreant by his thumbs. It is a moral duty.
Yes, you say, but that’s an extreme and very hypothetical case. Well, not as hypothetical as you think. Sure, the (nuclear) scale is hypothetical, but in the age of the car-and suicide-bomber, terrorists are often captured who have just set a car bomb to go off or sent a suicide bomber out to a coffee shop, and you only have minutes to find out where the attack is to take place. This “hypothetical” is common enough that the Israelis have a term for precisely that situation: the ticking time bomb problem.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000%5C000%5C006%5C400rhqav.asp?pg=1
There is a whole lot more, even a rationalized process, complete with decision tree, but this is the crux of Krauthammer’s argument. How difficult will it be to skewer it? Let’s see — first we have to believe in the “ticking time bomb” scenario: that we are lucky enough to catch the terrorist in that little slice of time, that one particular hour of the day - after he plants the device, but before it goes off. Pity we aren’t lucky enough to get him before it’s planted. Huge stretch to suspend my disbelief, but he says it’s common enough; and life can be perverse, so we’ll give him that.
Next , we have to torture the terrorist until he breaks. Let’s say we’ll water-board him. Per Krauthammer’s claim, he’ll break in 2 1/2 minutes. (Fracturing femurs and perforating eye-balls, or even a little playful trepanation might also work, but that can take hours, possibly days. Who has that kind of time?) That should give us plenty of leeway to find the device and disarm it. Oh, wait. Dag nab it. We didn’t anticipate catching a terrorist tonight, so we don’t have our water-boarding paraphernalia in the trunk. So - is it back to the designated torture room at the station, or over to Home Depot to pick up the cords, hoses, boards, funnel and bottled water? (Krauthammer conveniently omitted this node from his decision tree.) Well, HD has instant check out, and nobody goes there anymore, anyway, so there won’t be a line. Best case scenario: 10 minutes drive time (if we’re OK to torture, we can surely run a few red lights,) 10 minutes to find all our necessaries in the big box, and we’re all set to go, right there in the parking lot. Meanwhile, Moose and Rocco have had plenty of time to get the victim suspect softened up in the back of the paddy wagon.
Let’s assume 5 minutes prep time before we can get down to serious business. OK. Where are we? Just about 27 1/2 minutes into our hour, we now have our info, and that gives us just enough time to travel to the crime scene (10 minutes max, right?) with 22 1/2 minutes for our expert bomb squad to dismantle the device.
Uh-oh. Expletive deleted! There ain’t no bomb here. That rotten terrorist lied. They can be so clever that way. Under torture he told us WHAT WE WANTED TO HEAR. OK. Deep breath. There’s still time. Another 2 1/2 minutes and we have the truth out of him. The real truth, this time. Now we know, the bomb is located a mere 21 minutes away. We race against time …
KA-BOOM
Krauthamer goes on to point out inconsistencies in John McCain’s anti-torture position. As if that has any bearing on the real issue. As if incoherence from McCain should be news to anyone.
But, such is the plight of the Republican torture enabler. Read it and weep.
