Torture is an impermissable evil, except when it’s, like, really important to find something out

That’s the practical gist of this Charles Krauthammer column, which begins by invoking the much-mocked “ticking time bomb” scenario, but quickly moves on to this gem:

The second exception to the no-torture rule is the extraction of information from a high-value enemy in possession of high-value information likely to save lives. This case lacks the black-and-white clarity of the ticking time bomb scenario. We know less about the length of the fuse or the nature of the next attack. But we do know the danger is great.

This is the kind of “exception” which illustrates perfectly why the abstract philosophy seminar question of whether there’s any circumstances in which it might be morally permissable to torture is both much harder to answer and much less practically useful than the real question, which is, should we institutionalize torture? Because as soon as you institutionalize the practice, you’ll end up generating rules like this one, which through the impeccable logic of bureaucratic rationalization are certain to turn every case into an exceptional one.

Every use of torture that is anything other than the purest sadism always proceeds on the assumption that the tortured is a high value enemy in possession of information likely to save lives. Indeed, if the interrogation is failing to demonstrate this it can only be because the subject hasn’t cracked yet. Otherwise, the people doing the torturing are nothing but sadists, and since they know that’s not the case . . .

The spookiest aspect of this column is that Krauthammer is a psychiatrist. Does it not occur to him that every torture regime rationalizes its actions through precisely the sort of exceptions he advocates? Pure sociopaths, after all, are supposedly rare– although reading the sort of pro-torture porn that’s become a respectable part of political debate in this country does make one wonder.