Gelernter indulges in tortured logic

Re “When torture is the only option ... “ Opinion, Nov. 11

So, David Gelernter has explained to us in his best neo-condescending manner that a little torture is a good thing. Us lazy-thinking, Cabernet-sipping hot-tub baskers, he says, should realize that sometimes the CIA must be required (his italics) to torture, “because it may be the only option we’ve got.” As support, he drags out the tired example of a ticking nuclear bomb. The hypothetical saving of Manhattan in neocon think tanks has nothing to do with torture rooms in ClA black sites.

No, Prof. Gelernter, torture does not belong in our national arsenal -- never has, never will.

DENNIS MARTIN

Santa Monica

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Your dueling columns on torture (Gelernter and Larry C. Johnson) miss the middle ground. Torture should be illegal under any circumstance. In cases where it will save lives, an interrogator should be willing to stand trial for using any means necessary to obtain the information. Then they will make sure it is the only way and that it will work before they resort to such methods.

CHUCK LITTLE

29 Palms

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It is with dismay that I read the Gelernter pro-torture column published, ironically enough, on Veterans Day. His opinion that “torture (used with repugnance)” is acceptable as long as its goal is to save innocent lives is a line that can only be touted by a chicken hawk deeply embedded in the ridiculous double-think of the current administration. But calling Vice President Dick Cheney a hero for his championing of CIA torture holes, and Sen. John McCain’s opposition to torture as being somehow misguided and lacking in “integrity, leadership and moral courage,” shows Gelernter for what he truly is -- a pseudonym for Karl Rove.

BRAD BARTRAM

Los Angeles