I had read those opinions by the Times and they mildly disapprove but their tone was much harsher for Bush. Who is hypocritical? Not only the Times, but the Senate Democrats who spent years investigating and released a huge report on Bush's so-called torture, but nothing about Obama's drone strikes, which kills Americans, and suspected terrorists and their families, along with anyone else with 100 feet.
And no, I don't think it's torture. I also think death is worse than any technique they used. If you asked all the people who were waterboarded if they preferred waterboarding or death, I am sure they would all vote for waterboarding.
I am truly frightened by the fact that you probably aren't alone in thinking that, for instance, shoving something into someone's rectum with 'excessive force' causing anal prolapse isn't torture. I would ask if you feel the same way if it's someone other than the American government doing it to Americans as you do when it's the American government doing it to Muslim people, but I don't really want to continue the conversation, it's sickening.
It is something that apparently happened, approved or not. Does that not trouble you, that such a thing could happen, by those charged with upholding our liberty and safety, and there is nothing done to make sure it never happens again? Do the survivors, or the families of those killed, deserve some kind of apology or compensation?
We could argue about the 'approved techniques', as actually implemented, constituting torture too (I think they do, and think if they were done to you you'd agree -- I think your opinion is based on confidence that they would NEVER be done to you because they are only done to 'bad people', and the goverment would never confuse you for a 'bad person' -- you're probably right, only because you're American and white; in fat there are _numerous_ cases of 'mistaken identity' among those who were kidnapped and tortured), but really, neither of us are going to win such an argument on the internet.
And no, I don't think it's torture. I also think death is worse than any technique they used. If you asked all the people who were waterboarded if they preferred waterboarding or death, I am sure they would all vote for waterboarding.