The Anti-Warriors

A U.S. Senator, who during his youth was the victim of torture as a POW in Vietnam, has started a debate by insisting that the U.S. should promise never to do to anyone what the communists did to him.

The relevant news item is the accusation that the CIA maintains prisons worldwide where, supposedly, special things are done interrogating special people.

The debate reminds me of the guy who I walk by occasionally on the street corner in front of the Federal Building on Wilshire. He screams accusations at the top of his lungs with false certainty about news headlines. I regard him with the same respect that I regard the ‚“anti-torture‚” faction. That is - no respect.

The ‚“anti-torture‚” club is just as morally vacuous as the ‚“anti-war‚” club. They have no real-world relevance.

This is a serious issue, and it is how do we prevent the murder of civilians by people who have subscribed to a cult of murder and suicide? How do you change the behavior of people who are not impressed with our feelings of self-esteem?

There are no answers to those questions. It is a case-by-case, human-by-human problem. In a real fight, where your arm just got broken by the guy laughing at you, or your friend just got shot in the back, or the car-bomb is driving toward a school, or the guy sitting in the garage where the car-bombs were won‚’t tell you where the other cars went ‚… - there are no rules. And the spectators, who have lots of self-esteem, but who don‚’t have blood on their faces and haven‚’t buried friends and children, have no wisdom.