tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6851578517872251953.post245950440874425816..comments2023-10-10T05:07:13.577-07:00Comments on En Tequila Es Verdad: Eric Holder Does Not Believe In 24. Neocon Heads ExplodeDana Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00890312745525306991noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6851578517872251953.post-12479345681846427262009-01-17T12:35:00.000-08:002009-01-17T12:35:00.000-08:00Hi Woozle:Re: 1., I think that answer was implicit...Hi Woozle:<BR/><BR/>Re: 1., I think that answer was implicit in what Holder said. No reason to make a fool of a Senator, as much as that may be an overdue lesson in some sense.<BR/><BR/>Re: 2., I love it. I've tried to make this point before, but never so well. I suppose what's lacking in the Bauer wannabees is an ability to imagine a realistic scenario, including how long things take to happen, etc. People don't lose their anger or will to fight easily, particularly when they're a product of a process that looks for people who have lots of both. Checking out their stories takes time. You can't have a SWAT and UXO team on every street corner ready to raid the bomb's whereabouts. Anyone who has tried to drive quickly through a major American city would know what I'm talking about.<BR/><BR/>Ironically, the one reason torture might work is if the adversary in question <EM>never thought we'd do such a thing</EM>. As long as we make it a matter of policy, it will never work, because anyone with an ounce of sense will have some plausible time-wasting answers available.<BR/><BR/>But then, the Bauer wannabees don't have much ability to appreciate irony, either.Cujo359https://www.blogger.com/profile/10385213658828021737noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6851578517872251953.post-46652818905961830392009-01-17T06:27:00.000-08:002009-01-17T06:27:00.000-08:00Two points I wish Holder had made:1. (Minor) "In o...Two points I wish Holder had made:<BR/><BR/>1. (Minor) "In other words, Senator, if I were to assume that you are correct, would you then be correct?" (I'll leave any follow-up as an exercise for the reader.)<BR/><BR/>2. (Major) That there are not only effective alternatives to torture, but that torture itself is ineffective if what you need is <I>accurate information</I>.<BR/><BR/>Picture the scenario: ticking time-bomb about to destroy a major American city. There are just minutes to find and defuse it, and only one man knows where the bomb is.<BR/><BR/>Our real-life Bauer-wannabe knows this is no time for being gentle; lives are at stake, and if our terrorist needs a bit of roughing-up before he starts squealing, then hey -- it takes a tough man to make a tender terrorist.<BR/><BR/>Bauer goes to work with the washcloth technicians and the Engineered Discomfort Delivery System, and pretty soon ol' towel-head is yelling loudly that the bomb is at a given address, third floor, in the bedroom closet. It will go off in exactly 30 minutes!<BR/><BR/>Bomb technicians are scrambled to the scene, beat down the door and charge in to find the bomb...<BR/><BR/>What we don't see, of course, is that ol' towel-head got pissed off at the stupid pig-headed infidels thinking that a little physical discomfort would make him betray his holy cause (Christopher Hitchens notwithstanding) and has given us the address of someone who once looked at him funny... the bomb isn't there, innocent civilians are terrorized, but hey -- it doesn't matter, because the bomb goes off before they can find it, and everyone is killed.<BR/><BR/>In other words: in a scenario such as this, using torture, -- which is known to be effective only at obtaining <I>false</I> confessions -- is <B>more dangerous</B> to American lives than other interrogation techniques.<BR/><BR/>Dunno what it's going to take to get that through their thick skulls... in the light of this by now well-established knowledge, any politician who still advocates torture should be required to wear a "DUNCE" t-shirt for at least a week.<BR/><BR/>That said, it's nice to see a more-or-less 180-degree turnabout apparently in progress.Woozlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17948248776908775080noreply@blogger.com