CIA Torture and Politician Grandstanding

So the U.S. Senate report on CIA interrogation methods is out, and now we know that the CIA tortured detainees, including the use of violent rectal assault:

Some of the detainees were terrorists; some were probably innocent. We’ll never know because they were never tried in a court of law:

Some neoconservative torture apologists oppose the release of the CIA report:

Release of CIA "torture" report is good news for America's enemies–more propaganda fodder for them. Hard to see how it serves US interests.

— Max Boot (@MaxBoot) December 9, 2014

Others respond that the release of the report is essential to making sure the U.S. government never tortures again:

I'll take "So We Don't Ever Do It Again" for $500, @MaxBoot: https://t.co/DlEZsm9u0Q

— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) December 9, 2014

But here’s the thing: it will happen again. No one was ever punished for torturing detainees or giving orders to torture detainees. If you remove all penalties for murder, you don’t think the murder rate will go up? Simply exposing that “murder happens” isn’t going to change behavior in the long run.

If the U.S. government really wanted to keep itself from torturing innocent people again, it would expose and prosecute the individuals responsible.