weighing in on waterboarding

What do we gain if we win battles and wars and yet lose our virtue, or moral compass and the very values we claim to represent?

I have been hearing a lot of bilge from writers and politicans in the past few weeks about waterboarding, the form of torture where you place a subject (euphemism for a living, braething man or woman) in a position to experience the wonderful joy of the sensation of suffocating to death by drowning.

I have heard from those who believe it to be a fair and righteous way to interrogate prisoners.

I agree we live in a  difficult and complicated world where there are those who seek harm to us, but to give up our identity as humane, compassionate and spiritual people in order to preserve the expediency of this life?  You could, by the same logic, defend armed robbery as a means of making a living or rape as a means of passing on your genes.

When the ends justify the means the virtue is lost.  War is not a virtue.  Killing is not a virtue.  Expedience is not a virtue.  I will not get into a debate on specific cases, though.  

Evil in the name of good may play well on television and in films, but if all you want is a good dramatic story and not the preservation of the Constitution or moral limits expressly outlined in most world religions, including Christianity, I feel sorry for you, and sorry for those who may be swayed.

The first century Christians did not engage their opressors in battle.  They had not yet been tainted by the politics of expediency, the perversion of the faith in the name of principles we forfeit if we engage in conduct at odds with them.  As I have said before, God is not an American.

Waterboarding is torture.  Don't lie to make it worse.  The hypocrisy of our leaders on this topic is odious and insulting.