Customer Reviews

Because It Is Wrong: Torture, Privacy and Presidential Power in the Age of Terror

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The authors dealt with two issues: torture and privacy and questioned whether the public rights under the Constitution must be protected against torture and invasions of privacy 'at all costs' or can they be permitted under certain circumstances. The issues are difficult to handle and the answers might not be absolutely clear (although to the authors they are). On paper the authors are a formidable pairing of a law professor and a philosophy professor, but the more well-read reader may find their arguments lacking in depth, and in the various places where they refer to the authority of God as a source of authority, the non-religious reader may not be impressed. There is much more rhetoric than argument, but the authors are learned men, well-skilled in seems, in the art of persuasion: "If it is the leader's ultimate responsibility to be prepared to lose even his soul in a cause that all can understand, then his may be the most extreme, the most costly kind of moral heroism. But some some point, the world will perish and the heavens will fall. Must they take our souls with them?" The many instances of official breaches from Jefferson to Lincoln to Bush clearly and briefly told, however, are thought-provoking. It is a (short, 169-page) book for the citizen. The scholar will need to look elsewhere.

"Because It Is Wrong" is a short but profound book about the morality and legality of torture in the war on terror. It is very tightly argued: the reader needs to pay attention to every sentence -- and maybe read the book twice -- to follow the reasoning fully. But that doesn't mean the book is rushed. On the contrary, its main value is the way it cuts directly to first principles -- and once we accept its basic idea that consequentialism doesn't capture our moral intuitions about the way people should be treated, then lurid "ticking bomb" scenarios lose their grip on our thinking. Conservatives will hate "Because It Is Wrong" because one of the authors, Charles Fried, was Reagan's Solicitor General. His evident disgust with the brutalities and crimes of the Bush II Administration will strike these readers as apostasy. But other readers willing to read the book carefully will find it thought-provoking and eloquent.

Charles and Gregory Fried make a good point here, and a valid one, but the essence of their argument can be gleaned from the title alone. In their eyes, torture is wrong because it is wrong, period. There's not much you can say to support such an absolutist, simplistic argument, which explains why the book is so short (even with the wholly irrelevant diversion about privacy and government snooping.) If you agree with the Frieds, you'll likely be applauding all the way through, but the book doesn't do much to persuade those of us who are unsure or think the situation might be more complicated. I wouldn't recommend this.

Because It Is Wrong is certainly correct in its description of the situation viz torture and unauthorized spying. However, it is obviously written by two academics and is a bit tedious to read.