The critics of Haspel's nomination are right: The United States should never be engaged in evil conduct, and the torture of a human being is without any doubt whatsoever evil conduct. That's why torture is inevitably associated with such regimes as Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and North Korea. It has no place in a country whose very own founding document, the Constitution, expressly prohibits the federal government from inflicting "cruel and unusual punishments" on people.

Unfortunately, though, hardly anyone is talking about assassination, which is another core program of Haspel's CIA, one that involves murdering people. One might be tempted to say that assassination is "legalized murder" but actually that wouldn't be correct. It's not that assassination is legal, it's that there is no one who is willing to prosecute anyone for it, especially given the overwhelming power that both the CIA and the Pentagon have long wielded within America's federal governmental structure.