Jack Bauer of 24

All of a sudden there is a debate over torture. A debate about whether or not torture might be okay to use in some cases. What’s stunning is not the arguments for and against but that there’s now an accepting underlying narrative. Conservative and liberal commentators who violently disagree about whether the U.S. should torture tacitly agree on one thing: Torture works.

Bullshit.

The relatively short list of those who argue that it has (Dick Cheney, Michael Hayden, Michael Mukasey) all offer either no proof (Cheney) or debunked claims (Hayden and Mukasey). And all are former Bush Administration officials who have every reason to defend their actions regarding torture.

(Note that Obama’s intelligence director Dennis Blair did not argue torture had worked where other methods had failed. He instead used torturous language to explain how he would defend the CIA and it’s personnel for prior use of torture.)

The list of those who deny torture works is very long, filled with officials from Republican and Democratic Administrations who cite specific instances where critical information was gotten from suspects using more modern methods than simply inflicting pain.

Can torture work? Of course. But will torture ever produce results that other techniques will not? There is no evidence offered to support that. None. Except for Jack Bauer.

24 is just a TV show but in presenting torture as something that works week after week, year after year, over 164 episodes and counting, 24 caused Americans to rethink torture. After all if it works then maybe there are times…. Just look at the NY Times/CBS News poll out today. As Greg Sargent points out, when CBS and the Times can’t bring themselves to call waterboarding torture while 71 percent of Americans can, it says something.

Well folks guess what? It’s fiction. 24 is fiction. Jack Bauer is fiction. Torture yielding civilization-saving information is fiction. Torture does not work. End of story.

24 Sucks and Torture Doesn’t Work from Jay DeDapper on Vimeo.