On Torture

One of the smartest quotes on the subject.

"Some people on the right have faulted me because in that column that you cite I conceded that waterboarding is torture. Actually, I personally don’t think it is cause it’s an absurdity to have to say the United States of America has tortured over 10,000 of its own soldiers because it's, you know, it’s had them waterboarded as a part of their training. That’s an absurd sentence. So, I personally don’t think it is but I was willing to concede it in the column without argument exactly as you say to get away from the semantic argument, which is a waste of time and to simply say call it whatever you want. We know what it is. We know what actually happened. Should it have been done and did it work? Those are the only important questions,"

Labeling waterboarding "torture" eliminates the possibility of discussion. To most, torture is completely unacceptable under any circumstances - and they are correct. The question is not - should we torture? The question is - should we waterboard terrorist suspects in order to get information? I think the real answer is "it depends." But I think the answer, in terms of American policy should be no.