All this excuse-making and moral quibbling about when and how prisoners should be tortured is disgusting. Torture is what you don't want the enemy doing to your boys if they get captured. It doesn't matter "how many lives will be saved" or whether or not "they started it", or what the lawyers said or what was done in the past. If you don't want it done to your people, then you shouldn't do it to theirs. You don't need to be a constitutional scholar or military genius to figure that out.

It is the nature of war that you must do unto others, often the totally innocent, the unacceptable and the barbaric. Perhaps there is no alternative to war, and perhaps there is no other way to fight one. If that is the case, then accept the responsibility and do what you have to do, and if necessary, accept the consequences. But don't make excuses and have learned debates to justify your cruelty and your barbarism, especially from the safety of your panelled offices and your computer workstations. It is cowardly and pathetic. You people turn my stomach.