Legal Commentary

Mark Davis is a Dallas-based syndicated "conservative" radio talk-show host. He also writes a periodic editorial column for The Dallas Morning News. He had a column last month that was an astonishing, if perhaps unintentional, confession.

Mr. Davis berated retired CIA agent John Kiriakou for his public statements of his regret over the use of water boarding against captured al-Qaeda operatives. Davis considers Mr. Kiriakou a weak sister who has inexplicably second-guessed himself and his government on the use of an "aggressive interrogation technique" that has "worked" in eliciting  valuable intelligence that is assisting "us" in "winning" the war against Islamic terrorists.  He also faults John McCain for being wrong for asserting that water boarding doesn't work. Mr. Davis claims it does. Davis neglects to mention that McCain also objected to the use of water boarding because McCain believed that it constituted torture, and that the use of torture is improper on both moral and legal grounds.

Here's Mr. Davis' basic position on the issue:

Saving American lives is the principle that matters above all others, and nothing we do that measurably achieves that goal deserves derision.

That's not taken out of context. That's Mr. Davis' entire argument in favor of the use of water boarding, whether or not it constitutes "torture" or "aggressive interrogation." He takes up a lot of space deriding Mr. Kiriakou and ABC News, but the rest of the article is consistent with this clear, concise statement of principle. It's a plain statement that "the ends justifies the means." Accordingly, no action that America takes that "measurably achieves the goal of saving American lives" is unacceptable to Mr. Davis.

When I read statements such as this, I'm reminded why Islamist fanatics think that they can beat us; because they think that we love life more than we love anything else, least of all God, while they love God more than life. If Davis truly believed his statement of principle, then he should support the immediate mandatory conversion of all Americans to Islam, the implementation of sharia law in the United States, and the acquiescence of the United States to all demands of al-Qaeda. That would be an action that would measurably save American lives. Of course, that's just the lawyer in me being logical. Davis would back-and-fill immediately to qualify that statement to say "saving American lives without surrendering to the demands of al-Qaeda" is the principle that matters above all others.

As a struggling Christian, I'm reminded of the words of C.S. Lewis that I've quoted previously:

Progress means movement in a desired direction, and we do not all desire the same things for our species. In 'Possible Worlds' Professor Haldane pictured a future in which Man, foreseeing that Earth would soon be uninhabitable, adapted himself for migration to Venus by drastically modifying his physiology and abandoning justice, pity and happiness. The desire here is for mere survival. Now I care far more for how humanity lives than for how long. Progress, for me, means increasing the goodness and happiness of individual lives. For the species, as for each man, mere longevity seems to me a contemptible ideal.

I therefore go even further than C.P. Snow in removing the H-Bomb from the centre of the picture. Like him, I am not certain whether if it killed one-third of us (the one-third I belong to), this would be a bad thing for the remainder; like him, I don't think it will kill us all. But suppose it did? As a Christian, I take it for granted that human history will some day end; and I am offering Omniscience no advice as to the best date for that consummation.

I see little difference between the twisted religion of al-Qaeda members and their ilk, who believe that torturing and killing the "infidel" is justified by their God, and the valueless "principles" of fellow Americans such as Mr. Davis, who believe any action taken to preserve American lives is justified, including, logically, torture and murder. I think that they're all morally bankrupt.