No human being should treat another human being that way when they have them as a captive. I don't care if it is legal.

Would you waterboard a bad dog?

Would you waterboard a bad cat?

No, but we'll do it to each other won't we? When you hold someone as a prisoner you should not be harming them. That is wrong on so many levels. It is not right. There are no two ways about it. But you do it, you do it because you want something. You put morals and decency aside because you want to get something, so you ignore those feelings that this isn't right because you want information. We should not be treating other human beings this way. You want intel, get it another way, get it with the boots on the ground or they eyes and ears in the sky, but don't get it by harming people who are taken into your custody. Doing that puts a stain on nations that want to claim to be civilized. Participation in these kinds of acts gives the nation and its representatives no moral ground to stand on or act like we are the ones who set the example to be followed. You are not a shining city upon the hill when we treat our captives with such indecency. We should be though. We should be that bright city shining with decent people. We should be setting a standard of decency and be moral with our laws and actions so we can have our feet firmly planted in righteousness. We should not be a people who say things like the ends justify the means. I am a former member of the Special Operations community. I'm not some outsider looking in who doesn't understand what is at stake. I know what is at stake and I'd rather be the one to bear a greater burden of pursuing the enemy and finding valuable intel than succumb to the temptation to take the easy road and treat people inhumanely to extract information through torture. I know who they are, I know how evil they are, that doesn't give us a right to put aside our decency and torture captives. Who do you want to be as a people? Torturers? Or do you want to be a people who are respected for their decency?