[danielf]

Originally Posted by Osem

Well what we're really talking about is wrong, right and being consistent isn't it? Awful as it is, I don't think waterborading is as bad as killing and was just making the point that how can the former sometimes be deemed as acceptable when the latter isn't? We were the good guys in WWII but still managed to kill and awful lot of people innocent and guilty (and very probably employed techniques a lot worse than waterboarding).

Like most people, I wish none of this was happening but it is and we have to make tough decisions about how we deal with the threats we face. Our current stance doesn't seem to be logical.

Yes. Killing is part and parcel of war. Yet we don't go around killing just anyone, and when someone surrenders we tend to take them prisoner. We've signed up to all sorts of convention on how we treat prisoners. Waterboarding is not among them.