Not Really…

So, some folks are trying to paint the news that one lone bit of information was derived from “tough interrogation techniques” as some sort of grand vindication of the policy.  “Why, it works afterall!”  They claim.

The problem is, the issues and claims were not that it never works.  It was that you got far more unreliable information than you got reliable intel.  This prouced a code name that intel had o use other techniques for to get information and a lot of other work that went into it all.

But the point is, sure, Bush’s “harsh techniques” may get it right once and awhile.  But the argument was always, those techniques were needed to get immediate information to stop a potential bomb from exploding tomorrow.  Instead, it took seven years to get results.  Had there been that fabled bomb that we needed to find immediately?  It would have gone off and we’d be seven years to late.

And the moral implications and questions are not invalidated just because something “worked”.  Slav owners beating slaves got results.  It doesn’t justify beating slaves-let alone slavery.  The moral concerns don’t go away just because you got a sliver of good intel from the harsh techniques.

Sorry, the death of Osama Bin Laden is not vindication of techniques such as waterboarding.  No apologies are required from it’s critics.