I am not asking him to defend it, just make the point that it isn't torture.
This is the same society that firebombed Dresden and Tokyo, and dropped two atomic bombs on cities.
I don't have a bit of problem with Dresden or Tokyo or Hiroshima or Nagasaki, because that was the actual conduct of war. (Aside from the radiation, Tokyo was actually worse than the A-bomb strikes, you should read some of the details of LeMay's B-29 raids, it makes this war look like a stroll in the park).
I would've had problems with U.S. guards doing the kind of stuff we've seen in these photos to Hermann Goering in Spandau Prison, because IMHO as a society we should be above that.