The movie Zero Dark Thirty, about the hunt for Osama Bin Laden, was a good one.  Phenomenal really, and, like many of the movies and television shows I like, very journalistic in its flavor. It felt truthful. It definitely had a political message. I would summarize it this way.

Vengeance is mine. Torture works. Obama sucks.

I say the first two seriously, and the last one somewhat facetiously but sincerely.

The movie had an unapologetic, old Testament tone of striking and destroying our enemy, without qualms or regret. As for torture, it portrayed it as something done extensively, and that was a part of the successful detective work that led to finding Osama Bin Laden. As for president Barack Obama, I don’t believe he was ever even mentioned by name. His administration was portrayed as sluggish and risk averse, and certainly not given credit for taking a move labeled after the fact as risky and tough.

And so what’s the truth? Who knows. I bet though, that the movie maker’s point of view is defensible. Whether torture worked ultimately is something experts inside and outside the CIA can debate and disagree on.

My point of view is that I don’t want to see it done legally in my government’s name – even if is effective. If you only don’t torture when it’s not effective, well, that’s not much of an anti-torture and pro-human rights pledge, is it?