When I wrote last week about misplaced moral outrage, I wasn't intending to take a stance for or against waterboarding; I was merely expressing what I thought was a big hole in the public discourse.
The topic seemed interesting among my imaginary readers so I am passing on the results of a survey conducted by the congressman from my district. He posed the following statements and asked his constituency to indicate if they agreed (agreeing percentages indicated):
a) Waterboarding is justified under circumstances such as these because of the consequences. 77.58%
b) Waterboarding is never justified regardless of the consequences and the act itself has its own societal consequences. 17.28%
c) Undecided. 5.14%
Based on what I read, these results surprised me. I guess the news stories are simple artifacts of the ongoing partisan feuds in Washington and not necessarily indicative of a deep and bitter schism among the masses.
Last I checked, the United States were in a state of war while the waterboarding approach was utilized. I would put my own opinion on this closer to choice A - assuming it was not done except in extreme circumstances with suspects where there was strong evidence that they possessed relevant, impactful information. Really the bottom line is that such practices should never be judged in a vacuum. It seems inconsistent to condemn that method for extracting information from a foe that routinely uses killing of civilians as a tactic.
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