"We don't want it done to our people" is the lamest of all the arguments on enhanced interrogation. Since the end of WWII, American prisoners have routinely been torture - actual torture, involving broken bones, blood, and worse - in every conflict we have been in. The Geneva conventions have been violated by our enemies on every front.

Do you honestly think that torture of American troops only started after American newspapers printed pictures from Abu Ghraib? Or that Al Qaeda and the others would suddenly become more humane if we put all their prisoners up in hotel suites?

In any case, this isn't about treatment of prisoners. It was a handy political weapon a couple of years ago, and that's the only function of this controversy now. You might have noticed that current policies on rendition and prisoner treatment haven't gotten much air time, although there isn't that much difference.