What should be the rules regarding pre-emptive war? Alan Dershowitz says everything is a matter of degree. He wants to re-write international law to permit anything within the context of proportionality… targeted assassination, torture of prisoners, pre-emptive strikes. Says laws against torture are useless, he says… since every country tortures we should legalize it. What a dick. He proposes that we should legalize torture making the President responsible, with the President required to sign a torture warrant, counter-signed by the Chief Justice. He also wants to discriminate between torturing people to death and “rough interrogation.”

Isn’t it obvious that it’s wrong to look toward the Chief Executive as the ultimate authority? I think everyone has to take responsibility for humane actions. Dershowitz denies moral choice at the personal level and assigns it to authority. Proportionality dominates his argument. The old eye-for-an-eye thing is burned deep into his credulous consciousness. He somehow opposed the war in Iraq, but believed the lies about the existence of weapons of mass destruction there. So is he a liar or a fool? You decide, I can’t listen to the jerk anymore. (But, really, he has great respect for the Palestinians…)

Jenny Attiyeh, of Thoughtcast, has a stronger stomach than mine. And she is a great interviewer.