[gridlock]

Would you rather live in a country that routinely tortures people or live in a country that does not, but will have a major city vaporized by a terrorist nuclear weapon within the next ten years?

I would choose the latter, and I suspect you would too.

That said, what we are being offered is life in a country that routinely tortures people that will probably have a major city vaporized by a terrorist nuclear weapon within the next ten years anyway. Torture will do nothing to stop that, and may even make it more likely.

[arderkrag]

Tortue will never, and could never, do anything to stop it. Your question is invalid. I would choose neither.

[airborne]

It has been stated over and over again.

We do not use this technique routinely.

[Shryke]

Would you rather live in a country that routinely tortures people or live in a country that does not, but will have a major city vaporized by a terrorist nuclear weapon within the next ten years? I would choose the latter, and I suspect you would too

I would prefer the former. You fail to mention that democracy utterly collapses when all semblance of security is taken away - which would of course would happen in the case of losing a major US city.

You also fail to mention that the people we "routinely torture" willingly and gleefully ignore any and all treaties covering the conduct of warfare, and view civilians as the best targets. Why do you insist there are no consequences to that? Why are these filthy animals given Geneva-abiding human rights?

I will make a final comparison:

They saw the heads off of living, breathing, US CIVILIANS, on camera.

WE severely scare them, with water.

I can't grasp where we are doing something immoral.

[Luke Skyfreeper]

Would you rather live in a country that routinely tortures people or live in a country that does not, but will have a major city vaporized by a terrorist nuclear weapon within the next ten years?

Absolutely false dichotomy.

I would rather live in a country that has strong general respect for human rights, but which is prepared, when justified, to do whatever it takes to stop an enemy who is absolutely brutal, inhuman, demonic, barbarian and immoral, who would not hesitate for one single second to gang-rape your wife and slit your childrens' throats right before your eyes if they thought it would bring them an inch of gain; so that we that we have the best chance possible of avoiding seeing the city your mother lives in torn to little tiny bits of concrete and flaming wood by a nuclear bomb, with radiation spilling across the country and sickening millions of American children, so that they live the rest of their lives in pain and suffering.

That's the kind of country I would prefer to live in.