Why the Argument About Torture Will Endure
Torture isn’t about effectiveness, it’s about toughness. As we know from Usual Suspects, the winner is the one with the most WILL; if Reuel Marc Gerecht believes that brutally torturing suspects displays more WILL than the terrorists possess, then of course he will believe that we need to torture to win. Demonstrating the empirical absurdity of such a position is, and has always been, beside the point.