Patrick J. Buchanan on Torture

He acknowledges that "the legal and moral case against torture is compelling" but puts forth the scenario of "U.S. citizens d[ying] in a terror attack the CIA might have prevented, had its interrogators not been tied to an Army Field Manual" — Is Torture Ever Moral?

In addition to this "ticking time bomb scenario" he also mentions a film whose protagonist "has a daughter kidnapped by white slavers in Paris, whom he tortures for information to rescue her and bring her home." (What father wouldn't do the same? I would.) But compelling as they are, how realistic are these scenarios, and how useful are they in framing public policy?

On a related note, Mark Shea includes yours truly in an answer to a reader's request for "names of 'conservatives' (by this [he] mean[s] to say, people who might be swimming against the general current in their own usual 'political' cohort) who are writing good stuff against torture" — A reader has a question. Mr. Shea "note[s] (from the blogosphere) such voices as Zippy Catholic, Tom Kreitzberg, Feddie at Southern Appeal, Eve Tushnet, blackadder at Vox Nova, and John Schwenkler. Also, Rod Dreher, Maclin Horton, Red Cardigan and Daniel Larison have been vocal critics, as well as A Conservative Blog for Peace and Western Confucian."