Opinion
Published on May 1, 2012
Op-ed by Major General Walter L. Stewart Jr., USA (Ret.)
As we reflect on the anniversary of the operation to capture Osama bin Laden, there will undoubtedly be a chorus of voices proclaiming that “torture works” and that it makes our nation more safe. As somebody who has served to protect this nation for decades, I can assure you they are wrong.
Those who say that “torture works” link American soldiers and law enforcement with the methods employed by Spanish inquisitors or Imperial Japan’s interrogators. They also condemn Americans captured on future battlefields to treatment in kind. Our nation’s military knows this path is a two-way street.
