Ethics

Schumer Endorsed Torture

By Ed Brayton

Every once in a while, the Worldnutdaily actually catches something meaningful and accurate. Like Sen. Chuck Schumer saying that torture is okay, invoking that old (and never existing) ticking bomb scenario. He said:

"And I'd like to interject a note of balance here. There are times when we all get in high dudgeon. We ought to be reasonable about this. I think there are probably very few people in this room or in America who would say that torture should never, ever be used, particularly if thousands of lives are at stake. Take the hypothetical: If we knew that there was a nuclear bomb hidden in an American city and we believed that some kind of torture, fairly severe maybe, would give us a chance of finding that bomb before it went off, my guess is most Americans and most senators, maybe all, would say, 'Do what you have to do.' So it's easy to sit back in the armchair and say that torture can never be used. But when you're in the foxhole, it's a very different deal."

Okay Senator. I no longer want to hear you criticizing the Bush administration on this issue.

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on May 20, 2009 (boomark / email).