This “waterboarding” video he’s been showing — “proving” it is torture? Complete hoax, set up by Jerry Springer’s producer, with a Marine who admits he has never been on the same planet as SERE school — student or instructor, and got his “technique” from a website. Obvious to any of us WB vets — important safeguards were missing from this sham, which make it NOTHING like the EITs actually used.

Thin gruel to stake your reputation on, CM

It may turn out in the long run that you are right and I am wrong with respect to the corrosive effects of a long fight against a monstrous enemy – time will tell. But I believe you and I continue to talk past each other when you speak about the seductiveness of violence, or the attractiveness of torture. The mission here was not to destroy our enemies, or break them, it was to gain necessary intelligence of a time-critical nature that they would not have chosen to otherwise yield. Intelligence that would prevent another 9/11, or something worse. The problem with terror is that, to be successful, terrorist acts must be both spectacular and persistent. 9/11 set a pretty high bar for prospective terrorists who want to make a further impression, and we simply had to know who and what we were up against.

One last thing, at some point, you made a remark about, “the fact that you’ve said that the US should not waterboard or torture captives makes you a morally superior person to me”. Now, who said they were a morally superior person? My argument, at least, hasn’t the slightest thing to do with saying that I am a ‘morally superior person’ to you or anyone. I did name myself corruptio mentis after all, for your blog. My arguments had nothing to do with saying that I’m morally superior, or talking about the legalities of torture, or any of that. They had to do with the big picture, the effects of the policy of “Global War on Terror”/”Overseas Contingency Operation”/”The Long War”/Whatever you wanna call it, and the effect on everyone, not just the people who carry out the orders.

I fully admit being violent enough to appreciate the seductive, attractive aspect of torture, of destroying your enemies on a level that normal violence cannot reach, of breaking them as people. I just think that, if and when we go there as a country, it can blow back on us, and more importantly it affects us on an internal level, corroding our ability to act deliberately. And I want my nation-state to act deliberately, intelligently, usefully.