Freedom Cannot Be Protected by Torture
Re “Ticking Bombs and Slippery Slopes,” Commentary, May 29: Rosa Brooks is right in pointing out that justifications for torture are at best convenient and at worst contrived. They are also dehumanizing, reducing prisoners to caricatures of evil.
Nothing is so black and white, however.
Many of those tortured undoubtedly have had no worthwhile information to share; some have been subsequently released without charges -- or apology.
To those who say it’s better to be safe than sorry, I’d ask: If it were your son, daughter, father or mother who was jailed without charges, counsel or family contact and who was then repeatedly stripped, degraded and threatened, would you still think we were protecting freedoms, or abusing them?
Robert J. Inlow
Charlottesville, Va.
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