Good review in Slate of Marc Thiessen’s book by former military interrogator Matthew Alexander:
While many of Thiessen’s opinions are appalling from a moral perspective (he justifies torture and abuse through the religious writings of St. Thomas Aquinas), the book is comprised of errors, omissions, and a whopping dose of fear-mongering. I’ll concentrate here on his worst misstatements and why his conclusions ultimately make us less safe.
But, you know, Thiessen has a lot of experience as a second-tier speechwriter so maybe he should take his word for it.
Anyways, I’ll just observe that this review, like a lot of the best political commentary published by various arms of the Kaplan Test Prep octopus, is dedicated to rebutting views that various arms of the Kaplan Test Prep octopus have seen fit to publish. If Foreign Policy hadn’t run an absurd piece by Thiessen, and the Washington Post hadn’t hired Thiessen as a columnist, I’m not sure we’d care enough about Thiessen to want to see his reviews rebutted. When the Post publishes George Will lying about climate science, and then does an editorial weeks later about correct climate science, that’s on net a negative for understanding—creating the impression of controversy. The world would be a better place if these guys just stuck to SAT tips.
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