Jonah writes: “For [the anti-torture absolutists’] argument to be true, torture must be worse than killing, indeed it must be worse than the killing of innocent people” (emphasis his). It must be worse because none of these absolutists think that war should be outlawed even though it results in the death of innocents. I think Jonah’s argument goes seriously awry at this point, because it neglects intention. It isn’t absurd, and I think it is indeed right, to regard the deliberate torture of a person as worse than the unintended, though foreseen and accepted, killing of an innocent. Launching a just war might very well cause many noncombatants to lose their limbs or their eyes. That the war might still be justified, even given that cost, doesn’t mean that you can pluck out someone’s eye during an interrogation to get him to talk.