(notes from class discussion)
This article is not really about torture itself, but focuses on the politics of torture. Torture has become a political game abut who can protect Americans. Danner makes the point that we throw out our laws whenever we feel like it.
Danner discusses what is going on at a political level, the "logic" of the political conversation is as follows:
There are terrorists who want to attack us.
If we could find out their plans we could stop them.
With torture we can find out their plans.
Therefore, we should torture.
Why would America not want to torture?
-Hypocritical, against what we say/thing we are about
-Is it even effective?
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Nice terse summary. We might add a turn at the end about why Danner thinks the "does it work?" question is important: because of the way this whole thing is embedded in contemporary politics. Cheney et al. are making an argument/defense that depends on secrecy (we can't tell you what it prevented but believe us it did). It's an important sociology of information insight -- under what information conditions can you give your moral assent to something and/or hold people accountable?
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