Torture hurts the U.S.

Re “Tortured logic on torture,” Opinion, June 20

David B. Rivkin Jr. and Lee A. Casey do a good job of repeating the usual Bush administration talking points on torture, right down to the fantasy that a little well-placed brutality might save us in the hours before a terrorist attack. It’s all nonsense.

The writers have nothing to say about the real effectiveness of coercion, and they apparently cannot defend such new torture-friendly policies as extraordinary rendition (the suspect is sent to a country in which torture is winked at) and the establishment of secret prisons in Eastern Europe.

American power was built on the trust and respect we once enjoyed in the world. The administration has destroyed all that, in part by a willingness to torture.

No amount of fancy talk will change that fact; what we need is to throw out the torturers and their apologists and return to American ideals.

DAVID SCHABERG

Irvine

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The apologists keep sinking to new lows. So abuse of detainees is the exception, not the rule. Well, heck, then it’s all OK.

That logic is right up there with “Gee, your honor, there were more days when I didn’t kill people than days I did. So what’s the big deal?”

FLIP KOBLER

Valencia

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I find the arguments of former Justice Department officers Rivkin and Casey illogical and flawed.

There can be no way to prove that torture is occurring when the administration, under its impenetrable cloak of national security, presents no information about the true conditions at Guantanamo and no evidence as to the guilt of the detainees.

We citizens are asked to trust the administration’s word; we do have evidence of how reliable that word has been on other issues.

If the sole justification for internationally condemned interrogation methods is the safety of the American people, we must ask what, four years after their capture, these detainees might know of current Al Qaeda operations.

We know nothing of what is going on at Guantanamo. No evidence has been filed, no charges brought, no access allowed to defense counsel.

I find neither justice nor anything American in such practices.

PERRY ANDERSON

Huntington Beach