Torture is Wrong

Here's one more Thing Everyone Knows: Torture is wrong.

The very root of the word --- from the Latin 'tortus' --- means 'twisted'.  Torture is a twisted practice, and only a twisted individual would sanction its use.  The Spanish Inquisition, The Viet Cong, Saddam Hussein --- all of these were rightly condemned for the practice of torture.  Another thing that makes America great is the Eighth Amendment prohibition against 'cruel and unusual punishment', in which category torture definitely qualifies.

Donald Trump, naturally, doesn't understand any of this.  He has come out in favor of waterboarding and worse.  Unfortunately, the last Republican administration made a concerted effort to persuade the public either that waterboarding isn't torture, or that torture is just fine.  Fortunately, when a sane person claimed the presidency, he abolished the practice of waterboarding.  But by this point, a lot of Republicans had already been convinced that torture is not only okay, but necessary on occasion.  It's likely that most if not all of these Republicans are now Trump supporters.

In any case --- as Everyone Knows --- torture is still wrong.  However, Trump doubled down on his pro-torture stance in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Brussels, Belgium.  A number of people better informed than Trump criticized his comments, including Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), who said:

“Torture is immoral and illegal,” the congressman continued. “It is also a great way to get people to say anything to make the pain stop, and send authorities chasing false leads. Comments by Donald Drumpf espousing the virtues of torture are spoken by a person with no national security experience and who obviously knows little about how to obtain reliable and accurate intelligence.”

Schiff also called Trump's statements "quite simply, appalling and dangerous to our national security."

Trump hits the Daily Double again, championing policies which make America less great and less safe.  But don't just take my word for it, or Adam Schiff's or that of the other three U.S. intelligence officials cited in the Daily Beast article.  Consider the Senate Intelligence Report which concluded that torture is an ineffective means of obtaining information.  Consider terrorism expert Malcolm Nance, who speculates that Trump's most recent comments are again assisting ISIS in recruiting more terrorists to their cause.

And for the capper, consider the opinion of the Economist Intelligence Unit, a highly-respected forecasting and advisory service which currently ranks a Trump presidency as the sixth-greatest threat to global stability, equal to the threat posed by Islamic terrorism:

There have been many discussions about whether torture is effective, and those discussions will continue for many many years.  But whether it's effective or not, it's wrong, under all circumstances, full stop.  That's one Thing Everyone Knows.