Waterboarding

I just finished watching most of the latest republican debate, and the issue of "waterboarding" was raised again. Should we "torture" terrorist suspects in order to gain intelligence in the war on terror? I thought this stupid question was dead and buried after the capture of Kalhid Sheik Muhammed, and the killing of Osama bin Laden; both of which were facilitated by using such techniques. But, it seems I thought wrong. So, here is my answer to the question. We have to understand that we are in a conflict with people who want to kill all of us. They have proven that they will kill THEMSELVES to accomplish that goal. That fact alone should lay this silly question to rest, but still it persists. So, it seems to me, we have to define what is and is not torture. Torture, in my mind, is forcing people to decide if they want to jump 105 stories from the north WTC tower or burn to death. Torture is forcing the passengers on flight 93 over Shanksville, PA to decide if they want to almost surely die fighting, or wait and hope inaction doesn't cause another 3,000 deaths. Torture is when these 12th century barbarians cut people's heads off and then proudly display their handiwork on the internet. What is NOT torture is pouring water over their faces to scare the hell out of them to get them to talk. Not ONE person has ever lost their life because of our version of "torture." In less than two hours, on September 11, 2001, over three thousand of our citizen lost their lives because of theirs. How stupid a question is it to ask whether or not we are treating kindly enough the people who want to kill us?