Reply #39: And, worst of all, what if it works?

[gratuitous]

Let's grant all the hypotheticals: Bad guy, has information, torture will extract it, lives will be saved.

The interrogator does whatever is necessary. Bad guy talks. I'm in the building that doesn't blow up. I'm grateful for my life. I ask around. Interrogator did a bang-up job! I want to give him a medal.

Then I see the bad guy. He's been worked over pretty good. He's pretty beaten down and broken. Now what do we do with him? Return him to the general population? Hmmm. His life span is measurable in very small increments. Try to persuade him to join our side? Hmmm. His self-loathing is such that he's more likely to kill himself. And maybe take a few people with him.

Now I don't feel so good. Sure, I'm alive, but what was the price? Even if I'd been blown up, I don't think I would have wanted the perpetrators killed on my behalf or in my name. I'm under some pretty strict orders against that sort of thing. What can I do to atone for the violence someone did on my behalf? How can I live my life knowing that a man's life was ruined or taken away to save me?

And what is the nature of my disagreement with the terrorist? Is this an ideological dispute? Is my adversary insane? Does he just have an irrational hatred of something, and imputes that something to me? These just aren't good enough reasons for me to place my life over his.