Try those arguments in a court of law and see how they hold up. The Army Field Manual isn't the only thing that dictates what qualifies as torture. Even if you comply with the Army Field Manual doesn't mean you aren't breaking the law. There are specific federal laws about torture.
Just because something works doesn't mean you can or should do it. Shooting everyone who crosses the border illegally would be a great way to stop illegal immigration. Killing every Muslim in America would be a great way to stop potential terrorist threats. Allowing police to arrest people and throw them in jail without probable cause would probably lead to less crime.
I find all this blatantly ironic too considering the quotes in your signature. You complain about giving the government power, but you have no problem with this kind of thing.
We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls. The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. –Raoul Duke
It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...." Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson
