All around the Internet these days, folks are using bin Laden’s capture to bolster their own views on torture. Blogger Kenan Malik collects some examples of pro-torture types saying torture helped us, while anti-torture types say it didn’t help us catch him. Malik makes an important point: maybe torturing terrorists helped us catch bin Laden, but we still shouldn’t torture people.

This could be an entirely pragmatic argument, by the way. Even if torture can yield some good fruits (such as catching bin Laden) the costs of torture — radicalizing more terrorists, getting more bad leads, lowering morale and morals among our guys, and more — outweigh the benefits.