Torture and War Crimes

“Because of the bias in our debates in favor of hard-line policies, preventive war and torture not only become acceptable “options” worth considering, but they have often been treated as possessing the quality–seriousness–that they most lack. The belief that a government is entitled to invade a foreign country and destroy its government on the off chance that the latter might one day pose a threat is an outstanding example of something that is morally unserious. That is, it reveals the absence or the rejection of careful moral reasoning. Likewise, believing that a government should ever be allowed to torture people is the opposite of what comes from serious moral reflection. These so-called “serious” policies are driven by passions and knee-jerk responses and lead to horrible crimes and abuses of power, and that is why they should be condemned and rejected from the start." Torture and “Seriousness