They cut the heads off of our soldiers and booby-trapped their bodies, for crying out loud!
I would prefer they had waterboarded our soldiers.
I would prefer they had waterboarded our soldiers.
As would most. However that doesn't make it the best course - after all, it would probably be better that one of our soldiers was tortured and mutilated rather than beheaded. Does that mean we should accept either outcome as reasonable? No.
When facing two bad options, the fact that one is worse does not automatically make the other one good.