President Obama and former V.P. Dick Cheney gave dueling speeches yesterday, each giving their viewpoint on national security issues focused on the “enhanced interrogation techniques” favored by Cheney and disdained by Obama. The point-counterpoint covered the areas that have led to the sharp disagreements of the past month, including the treatment of terrorist suspects, the closing of Guantánamo Bay and the potential incarceration of those held there in American prisons, and the potential for criminal prosecution of those who sanctioned unlawful treatment of detainees. Cheney has pushed the Administration’s buttons on this, and continues to try to move the policy in this area through this very public process.

Cheney’s position, as I understand it, is that any interrogation methodology used is acceptable because of the severity of the problem. He verifies the success of this logic by the fact that no attacks have been launched on our soil since September 11. Cheney denies that torture was used, but that is a semantic exercise. He believes any methodology is acceptable, and that a re-definition of torture as enhanced interrogation techniques solves any pesky legal issues that would otherwise prevent the utilization of these methods. And these pesky legal issues, and our standing in the world, lay at the heart of President Obama’s response.

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