Iran would be radioactive glass. Talk about waking a sleeping giant. Such an act would have the giant stomping all over the Middle East.

If they vaporized NYC, then the public would care less what they did to the terrorist. The only thing the public would be angry about, in regards to the torturers, is that they didn’t get the information quick enough.

Lets change you scenario. Say said torture was successful in preventing attack and the destruction of NYC. And say said torture was reviled to the public. How would public react about the torture? It is easy to criticized that the ends do not justify the means when the ends turned out okay. Also, the public would probably never really know just how close NYC came to being vaporized.