From an officer serving in Baghdad:
Jonah (if you’ll forgive the familiar address),
I’ve been giving a lot of thought recently as to what exactly my own position is on torture, and it occurred to me that I have a disconnect between what I feel is acceptable for my government to do, and what I wouldn’t have an issue with as a private actor. Given the types of people we’re talking about – generally the most evil men you could invent – I think it’s fair to say that they richly deserve any suffering visited upon them. The issue with torture, at least in our context, is about the stain it leaves on us, not any unfairness to KSM or Abu Zubaydah. I think most patriots would typically want to tread very carefully when it comes to bringing dishonor on their country, but if I wasn’t acting on behalf of the United States and yet had a chance to save innocent lives by torturing a terrorist as clearly evil as KSM, I don’t think I’d hesitate. If the guilt was mine alone to bear, I don’t think I could do otherwise.
This brings up all sorts of other issues as well, such as agents of the government who act with legal deniability (i.e., the CIA’s Special Activities Division). There are things that the government should openly condemn, but which it might still need to do in secret (e.g., assassinations). Is that morally defensible? Honestly I’m not altogether certain, but it’s an aspect to the torture debate I haven’t seen addressed so far.
Please withhold my name.
Very Respectfully,
[Name withheld]
Baghdad, Iraq