steven787 on 16 January 2009
It's not idealism in the rhetorical sense. It's an ideal, sure. But it's a realistic one. We can choose our behavior. We choose to torture or not to torture.
From John Winthrop to Presidents Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, John F. Kennedy, George W. Bush and every president in between says that we should be an example to others (in one way or another), that we are the greatest, a people of ideals.
By the US using waterboarding we are then saying that that is our example.
Will the United States still exist? Yes, of course it will. It will just be doing evil things. The idea of the United States started as a way to eliminate Tyranny.
I would cite regulation, but I know you will simply ignore it.
