Does torture work?
Does it produce valuable intelligence?
Are there classified memos showing that it's worked?
How often has torture saved lives?
Many times? Sometimes? Once?
And if it did save lives once, twice, or more often, shouldn't that matter?
HELL NO!!!!
Because torture is ILLEGAL.
Because torture is a WAR CRIME.
Because some things are worth more than the maximum safety possible.
Because no remote possibility of attack is worth pissing on our principles or selling out our souls.
At most, the existence of a true ticking time bomb scenario should be heavily considered during the SENTENCING phase of a criminal torture conviction.
Any other talk of "Does it work?" or "Are there memos that showed it worked?" or any other tangential debates ARE JUST PATHETIC ATTEMPTS TO DISTRACT you, and steer the conversation away from the issue that matters. They think you're stupid as all hell and they LAUGH each time you and the media fall for it.
Without question: waterboarding IS torture, torture IS an illegal war crime, and war crimes MUST be prosecuted. Justice demands it. Heck, Ronald fucking Reagan demanded it.
For all you pragmatists out there who think "looking forward, not backward" is more practical, think about the increased risk to our troops and ourselves when the family and friends of thousands of torture victims see our reluctance to punish people for these crimes. Think about the Muslim masses that we're pissing off enough to either help Al Qaeda, or not work to oppose them. Think about the future enemy governments that will use legaleezed forms of torture on Americans based on the precedent we set. Think about the cost to our country in both cash and blood.
Stop the insanity.
PROSECUTE TORTURE
Restore America's rightful reputation.
And bring this national nightmare to an end.