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Originally Posted by Baraka_Guru
You're assuming that waterboarding isn't cruel and unusual punishment. It is, which is why it's unconstitutional. If it weren't cruel and unusual, it could be a standard practice in the justice system.
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I don't see what's so cruel or unusual about it? And, again, the reason waterboarding isn't practiced in our criminal justice system is because there's no reason for it to be. I'm fairly sure that people aren't waterboarded willy-nilly. Indeed, they're waterboarded only when the situation necessitates (sp?) that they be waterboarded, and I'd guess this would be in situations where it's decided that the person might contain information which will save a great deal of American lives.
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This is why the terrorists are winning. They want America to play outside of its own boundaries. They're destroying the nation from within. That's what terror does.
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In war, you know where "nice guys" end up? Dead. If we don't play their game then we're weak and they'll continue to attack us. If we do, then we're just as bad as them. Well, I'd rather be just as bad as them and alive to see another day.
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So to fight the terrorists one much do as they do. Interesting. You condone the moral destruction of America?
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I don't really want to get into the whole "moral destruction of America" thing, as I believe that happened a long, long, long time ago.
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The basest form of irony? It's often hard to detect in text. It usually benefits from tonal nuances in speech, in addition to facial expressions such as eye rolling. 
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But then it would have been too obvious.
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Originally Posted by Willravel
Who said a "new" recruiting tool? Torture is their main recruiting tool. Main. Central. Most important. Without it, they would have lost their main recruiting tool.
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I thought it was the fact that we've been inciting revolts and causing general instability in the area for our own economic goals (Mainly a safe access to oil).
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The difference is the intensity of suffering.
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I'm sorry, but this is entirely subjective. Some people might have no reaction to being waterboarded, but react negatively to sleep deprivation. One person might have no reaction to physical beatings, but another be driven insane by listening to the same song for hours on end. Where, exactly, would you draw the line in labeling which one of these things is torture and which isn't?
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Not only is it cruel and unusual punishment, but there is actual legal precedent of the US prosecuting people for it.
This sort of "slippery slope" fallacy that you are trying to cling to here is just that, a fallacy. Claiming that it can't be torture because then anything that is unpleasant is torture is a great example of that fallacy.
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That's not what I'm saying at all. I'm trying to find out what constitutes torture and where you draw the line being torture? Because, following the guidelines on torture set forth by the U.N., then very nearly anything which involves subjecting someone to something against their will in order to obtain information could be construed as torture.