[varyouga]

Let's say you had very good intelligence that certain people planted a large bomb somewhere. But only those people knew where it was.

This is a very probable scenario and has most likely happened before.

I would not be opposed to a safe psychological interrogation technique like waterboarding. It does no damage if done properly.

Even if the detainee is innocent it comes down to this - A potentially innocent person thinking he's drowning for a few minutes or multiple 100% innocent people being killed if we don't get the information.

If proper waterboarding has saved at least 1 innocent life, it's worth it. Any innocent people waterboarded might have been scared, but they are still alive and uninjured.

[George W. Bush]

Let's say you had very good intelligence that certain people planted a large bomb somewhere. But only those people knew where it was.

That is an entirely different matter than the routine administrative practice of torture for the purpose of extracting intel on a foreign battlefield.

We had a spectacle in one of the debates where our candidates were seemingly competing on how much they'd waterboard and torture captives in such an event.

First, we should never make it our policy which this administration has done.

Second, if the scenario you suggest ever did occur (and it's quite unlikely), then a president would have to make the call (and he would authorize).

But to make it a routine method for the extraction of military info and as a routine administrative procedure is not the same thing as its use in an extreme circumstance.

A good rule to remember is: "Hard cases make bad laws." It's just as applicable here. Don't try to justify bad policy by dreaming up the most extreme and unlikely crapola anyone has ever heard of just to justify your own lack of other means to pursue conventional military operations and victory.

I know it's a shock to some people here at FR but the brown peoples of the world don't really think a lot of us using torture and bombs to make friends with them and win them to democracy. I know, it's perverse that they refuse to recognize our benevolence. But the truth is that their hatred of Westerners makes them easy prey for native propagandists against us and these methods play right into the hands of the radicals and help their recruiting against us.

We do pay a price for these practices. Then we sit around and wonder why those perverse foreigners don't like us and Europe treats us like lepers.