Military tells Jack Bauer

Good lord, are there really people in responsible positions who think torture is a good way to find out what someone knows?

Now some guy from West Point is saying that a TV show is influencing our troops. How can they say with a straight face that people charged with interrogation are not trained and would rely on what they learned from a TV series over training.

Interrogation techniques will be studied and that which is effective will be used by individuals that are highly trained experts in interrogation. It is purely a pragmatic process that involves morality as a factor at some level, but ultimately it is about return on investment. We train our own people to yield to torture at their own discretion when it involves confession and I have no doubt that lying is also part of training.

Could some untrained yahoo go beyond his pay grade in questioning prisoners? Sure he could, but imo when that happens it is more about sadism than it is about extracting information.

Above all, when it comes to torture there is nothing new under the sun and we are no better or worse than we have ever been.