Thursday, July 06, 2006

Torture   [Ramesh Ponnuru]

Andrew Sullivan is linking to a post by James Bennet, who suggests (among other stupidities) that on a panel last night I criticized Sullivan for the "apostasy" of condemning torture. That's not at all what I said. I have expressed my own opposition to torture in all circumstances: a stronger line against torture, in some respects, than Sullivan's. I supported the McCain amendment. (Sullivan praised me for it at the time, not that I expect him to remember his own positions from week to week.)

What I said last night was that it is hysterical to draw a straight line from the administration's interpretation of the Geneva Conventions to Abu Ghraib, and to call this country a rogue state, as Sullivan does, and that this sort of commentary causes people not to take him seriously. Since another panelist had quoted one of his sermons as evidence of intra-conservative strife, I also observed that I know no serious conservative who considers him a conservative. I am prepared to believe that there are a few misguided conservatives, unbeknownst to me, who do consider him a fellow conservative. But even if that's true, it would not change the fundamental accuracy of my statement that Sullivan's pronouncements are not good evidence of intra-conservative strife.

07/06 08:31 AMShare