Applying Socrates and Machiavelli to Krauthammer

In The Trial and Death of Socrates, Socrates states his belief that no matter what someone else has done to you, you do not have the right to do wrong to them.  Socrates believes that an act needs to be isolated outside of context.  Once this is done, if an act is thought to be a wrong, it is wrong in all situations.  Machiavelli relays a different message in The Prince.  Machiavelli believes that every act should be examined in context.  Certain acts are warranted in some situations and not warranted in others.  These two concepts are a general picture of the debate over whether torture should be made legal or not.  Clearly Socrates would say that torture should not be legal and Machiavelli would allow it to always be an option. In both political thinkers’ time, mass murder was not of the capable magnitude that it is today.  I dare to suggest that a situation such as a “ticking bomb” in today’s world could be posed to Socrates and it would be awfully difficult for him to say that torture is not warranted.  However, I believe that Socrates would say something on the subject similar to what was highlighted in the Krauthammer piece about how our actions reflect our ideals to the rest of the world.  Socrates is not one to tolerate hypocrisy, which is evident in his idea of determining the rightness and wrongness of an act outside of its context.  An America, with all of its ideals and luster, would be a hypocrisy if torture was made legal.  In considering Machiavelli’s words, Krauthammer wishes to protect the love that people have for “America” such as was displayed during WWII.  Machiavelli of course does not find this to be the best option via, “it is better to be feared than loved”.  For much of my days I have understood what Machiavelli means by this, but the subject of torture throws a wrinkle in his statement.  Perhaps he would insist that torture falls outside of guidelines he presents for Princes.  After all he believed that if a prince must do something bad you should do it quickly and quietly, if you do something good, you should make it last as to savor the flavor, or something along those lines.  America may certainly torture quietly but not swiftly.  Torture is an interesting subject when you apply the thought of late philosophers because in most of their time and Krauthammer pointed out, torture was reserved only for slaves.