Ruthless Yet Humane

A good Hitchens article on how the British would interrogate Nazi spies.

As Col. Stephens wrote, following the words quoted above about how "violence is taboo" and that it "lowers the standard of information":

There is no room for a percentage assessment of reliability. If information is correct, it is accepted and recorded; if it is doubtful, it should be rejected in toto.

In other words, it is precisely because the situation was so urgent, so desperate, and so grave that no amateurish or stupid methods could be permitted to taint the source. Col. Stephens, who was entirely devoted to breaking his prisoners and destroying the Nazis, eventually persuaded many important detainees to work for him...

The underlying issue with all this torture business is the United States incompetence when it comes to matters of intelligence. We suck at it. For the amount of resources we devote to intelligence, our intelligence services are at best, 2nd rate. This much is clear. It is a cultural issue. Americans are good at some things - hard work - self reliance - delivering pizza - making movies - amongst others. But Americans are also bad at some things - high culture - soccer - making small affordable automobiles - and gather intelligence on our enemies.

We tortured these people because we were desperate and stupid and stupid desperate people do stupid desperate things. I don't know the fix, but it is not the moral grandstanding on the left nor the creepy secretive faux-expertise of the Cheney right. It is about admitting our intelligence problems and figuring out a way to systematically improve it.