It both shames and saddens me to admit that the American citizenry has again been duped by the Cheney fear machine, clearly we have.  The torture debate is being lost in a sea of misdirection, specious arguments and outright lies.  This must stop.  Whether or not any Bush administration official or bureaucrat is ever charged with war crimes, we as a nation must clearly stand on the moral and legal side of the torture line. 

Former Vice President Cheney, with an assist from the MSM, has replaced the real and necessary argument as to the legality and morality of Bush's torture policies with a faux debate about whether or not torture works.  This is a faux debate for two pretty obvious reasons.

First, of course torture works if your goal is to get your prisoner to say what you want him to say.  Tortured prisoners do talk.  What they say is useless unless you are attempting to force a confession - see KSM admissions regarding Daniel Pearl's murder, or you are eager to collect information only valued in quantity rather than quality - all intelligence is actionable if you choose to act on it.

Second, all crimes work to solve the problems and issues of the persons who committ them.  A hungry person has a problem.  He needs food.  Stealing the food solves the problem.  So what?  Stealing is still both illegal and immoral.  The fact that it "worked" is irrelevant to the illegality.  A prominent and powerful man gets questioned about his relationship with a young woman at work while being deposed in a lawsuit.  He has several problems - the truth is that he did have an innappropriate sexual relationship with this young woman, his wife and daughter will be publicly humiliated yet again, and he already has a special prosecutor breathing down his neck.  So, he lies.  Problem temporarily solved.  Lying worked.  But lying under oath is still illegal.  The temporary relief provided does nothing to change the illegality of the action.

Smart, moral people of all political stripes must push back and push back hard against these faux arguments and return the focus where it must be.  Who is responsible for these crimes?  How were the mechanisms of our government used to facilitate and cover them up?  Are criminal investigations and trials necessary and appropriate?  What changes to our government bureaucracies need to be made to insure that this never happens again?  These are the issues that must be debated.  Whether or not torture worked is a red herring and these arguments should be avoided.  Every cry of "Torture Worked" must be met with a louder cry of "Still Illegal"!