You know you’re in trouble…

…when a twinkly starlet has more moral sense than your entire political movement.

Exhibit A: Gabrielle Union, who immediately and intuitively understands what every torture apologist who has ever said, “Gee! We shoot people in wartime so why can’t we torture prisoners too?”

“A stranger who robbed the store I worked at. He put his gun down during the rape and asked me to hand it to him.”

When that happened, Union “tried to shoot [her] rapist, but missed.”

“Over the years I realized that killing my rapist would’ve added insult to injury,” she mused. “The desire to kill someone who has abused/raped you is understandable, but unless it’s self defense in the moment to save your life, it just adds to your troubles.”

There are two amazing things in this story. First, that the rapist was clueless enough to expect her to hand him the gun instead of shoot him.

But even more than that is Union’s recognition that there’s a difference between shooting somebody in self-defense and vengeance. Excusemakers for torture perpetually posit no difference between shooting in the heat of combat and torturing a prisoner who is no threat. They also don’t seem to grasp Union’s insight: that vengeance brings no peace (and that’s what torture is about, not intelligence gathering).