Peggy Noonan is a villain

Here's the proof:

The question for the Obama administration: Do they think Mr. Cheney is essentially correct, that bad men are coming with evil and deadly intent, but that America can afford to, must for moral reasons, change its stance regarding interrogation and detention of terrorists? Or, deep down, do the president and those around him think Mr. Cheney is wrong, that people who make such warnings are hyping the threat for political purposes? And, therefore, that interrogation techniques, etc., can of course be relaxed? I don't know the precise answer to this question. Do they know exactly what they think? Or are they reading raw threat files each day trying to figure out what they think?

I love how this quote assumes that torture is the baseline, on one side of which is a body of useful and vital intelligence, and on the other are American cities in ruin, crops burned, stores looted, people stampeded, and cattle raped. (My apologies to Ms. Noonan. I was taught to use words that are true and precise, like "torture" instead of "interrogation and detention." Those euphemisms just smack of Orwell.) Aside from a muttered nod to "moral reasons," it never occurs to Ms. Noonan that we would change our stance on "interrogation and detention of terrorists" because our stance on "interrogation and detention of terrorists" is ineffective, dangerous, illegal, unethical, hypocritical, and generally repugnant. A kinder, gentler nation, my ass.

Meanwhile, Steven Benen over at the Washington Monthly blog takes a different tack.