End and the Means

[Eilonnwy]

That's can be a very broad open-ended statement. I would say I'm opposed to it philosophically. I think a persons moral's and ethics, essentially their values, should not be compromised, otherwise are they really values?. Could you possible create a scenario where I might change that opinion? Possible, but not likely. And then again would that scenario be plausible. Like Adrian's train scenario doesn't seem very plausible and I don't like debating hypothetical scenarios that will likely never happen.

Torture is a huge controversy in the US. The Bush administration claimed it needed to torture to protect America. We now know it's all bullshit, but they believe the ends justified the means. But it doesn't. One guy, whose name escapes me, is beyond prosecution because we tortured him. He was supposed to be a hijacker on the flight 93 on 911. He will never be put to trial now. There are a whole myriad of reasons why torture is wrong, the best is that information from torture is never reliable, is never timely. Time and again talking, negotiating, etc... is what provides true information.