The Wrong Way to Take the Right View on Torture

I feel a bit churlish criticizing somebody who volunteered to undergo waterboarding and reported that yes, it is torture, considering a) I would never volunteer to be tortured for an article myself and b) Christopher Hitchens’ unrelenting support of the war might make some people receptive to hearing that waterboarding is torture who wouldn’t be receptive to hearing it from, say, me. But then again, it’s not as if Hitchens’ views about religion have gained much currency among his newfound comrades. Nor was it exactly difficult to predict how the denialist right would react to his Vanity Fair report on being tortured. More to the point — and I suppose I’m glad Phillip Carter said it first — it’s far from obvious that volunteering to submit to torture in order to confirm that it is, in fact, torture, gives one privileged standing to talk about torture, anymore than crashing a plane gives one special standing to be presid...