In defense of torture

In Kathleen Parker’s April 26 piece on torture, she finishes up by saying, “When we ask if something is torture, the answer is another question: What kind of people should we be?” The answer is simple: Live people; dead ones have no moral dilemmas.

According to former CIA Director George Tenet, a Clinton appointee, the torture interrogations gave information that saved American lives. His successors Porter Goss and Mike Hayden agree, as does former Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell.

Obama’s appointee as director of national intelligence, Dennis Blair, on April 16 said that high-value information came from the torture interrogations.

Torture works. Temporary pain and fear of a very few people have likely saved the lives of very many Americans.

Kathleen Parker’s column is an example of people with real life-and-death responsibilities being second-guessed by people with no responsibilities, except to preen as morally and intellectually superior.

Some politicians, such as Nancy Pelosi, are doing worse, trying to make criminals of political opponents, for the torture interrogations, that she had been fully informed about and had raised no objections to. She belongs in the government of some Third World latrine country, not ours.

Tom Horne

Spokane