Best Defense

Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

Green torture on ’24’

In another pathetic attempt to redeem their utterly lost souls, executives at Fox are going to try to make their torture-porn show, "24," carbon-neutral. I suppose this means that the electric shocks will be solar-powered.   True confessions: I watched and liked the first couple of seasons of the show. But as I recovered from ...

In another pathetic attempt to redeem their utterly lost souls, executives at Fox are going to try to make their torture-porn show, "24," carbon-neutral. I suppose this means that the electric shocks will be solar-powered.

In another pathetic attempt to redeem their utterly lost souls, executives at Fox are going to try to make their torture-porn show, "24," carbon-neutral. I suppose this means that the electric shocks will be solar-powered.

 

True confessions: I watched and liked the first couple of seasons of the show. But as I recovered from 9/11, I became increasingly disturbed by how the show endorsed torture. If any one form of entertainment showed the wrong, counterproductive way to respond to al Qaeda, this was it.

Bottom line: This show should be relegated to an exhibit at the George W. Bush Presidential Library, perhaps in the discussion of whether you can win a war for your values by undermining them.

Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military from 1991 to 2008 for the Wall Street Journal and then the Washington Post. He can be reached at ricksblogcomment@gmail.com. Twitter: @tomricks1

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