couldn't aggree more.

welcome to our colective hell.

I completely agree. It's something that has been festering in my mind for quite some time.

Dear Mr. President,

As you probably think that "Nietzsche" is a German candy bar, let's put aside, for the moment, the philosophical question of whether allowing the U.S. to engage in torture threatens the essence of what makes the U.S. "exceptional." Rather, let's focus on more pragmatic concerns: allowing torture under any circumstances is a bad idea because it harms U.S. interests.

First, torture has little utility as an information-gathering tool. As even recent news stories have demonstrated, people will tell you pretty much anything you want to hear under torture. They have no incentive to tell the truth and great incentive to tell you lies, especially if they are hostile to your interests which, as you're pulling out their fingernails, they likely are. There are just oodles of examples of this, even in our own history. The North Vietnamese regularly tortured captured Americans and captured Americans regularly said either nothing of interest or packs of outrageous lies, on some occasions actually tricking their captors. We'll likely have even less impressive results as there is no way, God willing, we're ever going to be as good at torture as the North Vietnamese. You should really listen to John McCain on this one as he actually knows what he's talking about, unlike the arm-chair neo-con James Bonds you're getting advice from at the moment.

Nor is the usual first-college-term-dorm-discussion regarding the imminent explosion of nuclear bombs particularly relevant. Most of the terrorists you're likely to catch in these situations are mentally prepared for suicide missions. A few swipes with the rubber hose or electric shocks are unlikely to soften these folks up in time to do you any good.

Because that's the problem. Allowing torture under any circumstances "hardens up" people all around the world. For every person you're able to extract any useful information from by torture, there are a thousand -- or a million -- who would freely give information if America made even a pretense of living up to its ideals. The true power of America is not that it can break people's legs -- any petty dictator can do that. The true power of America is that it represents something people want to cooperate with. By refusing to torture people under any circumstances, you take one small step toward staking out an absolute moral position. The statement "America will never torture people because it's wrong." means America stands for something. America will only be trusted when it will refuse to do some things that are wrong even if they are expedient.

The bottom line here, in case you missed it, Mr. President, is that torturing people will actually lose the U.S. far more vital intelligence than it gains. If you won't stop torturing people because it's wrong, stop torturing people because it's bad policy.

And those fools in King Crimson thought they were singing about Vietnam but projecting into the future; perhaps they were more right on than Orwell was in dating 1984. And on one of the most underappreciated great albums of all time:

21st Century Schizoid Man -- King Crimson -- "In the Court of the Crimson King" (1969)


Cat's foot iron claw
Neuro-surgeons scream for more
At paranoia's poison door
21st century schizoid man

Blood rack barbed wire
Politician's funeral pyre
Innocents raped with napalm fire
21st century schizoid man

Death seed blind man greed
Poets' starving children bleed
Nothing he's got he really needs
21st century schizoid man