Torture is, essentially, vigilantism masquerading as an
interrogation technique. The emotional appeal of torture is that it
acts as a kind of extrajudicial collective punishment against scary
Muslims.The Rasmussen poll is actually revealing in this sense: People still want alleged underwear bomber Umar Abdulmutallab to be waterboarded even though the authorities are reportedly having no trouble extracting information from him. You also have people like National Review writer Cliff May (who like former Bush speechwriter Marc Thiessen, believes that the religion of Muslim detainees justifies torturing them) “joking” about murdering suspected terror detainees from Yemen.

This is a lynch mob mentality. Lynching black folks in the South
wasn’t just about extrajudicial punishment and circumventing the rule
of law — it was about sending a message, keeping black people in their
place, ensuring that they would remain forever submissive to white
authority. It’s why it didn’t matter — as with torture and racial profiling, (say like “strip searching all Muslim males between 18-28”) whether the individual was actually guilty. Even an innocent
person will do, because either way the message gets sent.

The
national security policies the torture wing of the GOP is pushing for are based on the same premise. They are not calling for torture because the regular functions of due process are inadequate for bringing an
individual to justice. They support torture because it is a means of exacting retribution or striking fear into the group they see as collectively responsible. This is why you can have someone like Michael Goldfarb advocating for the murder of Palestinian children as a method of
“punishing terrorists” without anyone on the right mustering a pinch of
outrage. As Goldfarb wrote, “to wipe out a man’s entire family, it’s hard to imagine that doesn’t give his colleagues at least a moment’s pause.”

In other words, the message gets sent. And frankly, if someone were to suggest simply hanging Abdulmutallab on a tree branch and then mutilating his body I’d bet you could probably find a writer or two at the National Review who would support the idea.

— A. Serwer