Bomber Harris, all is forgiven

The Wall Street Journal's Bret Stephens (subs. req'd; alt. free link) has a defence for George Bush's desire to torture terrorist detainees -- that it's not as bad as the firebombing of German cities or the atomic bombing of Japan in World War II. Leave aside all the other problems with this argument. If George W. Bush is, like Churchill and FDR, engaged in all-out war against totalitarian enemies and he thinks he needs to torture a few people to advance the greater good, why doesn't he come out and say so? The torture debate is of course driven by moral questions. But it's fueled by Bush's word games, a fuel he could remove by simply saying in plain English what he wants to do.