Waterboarding: Torture or not?

In the Republican debates, Andrew Jones, a college student from Seattle submitted the question: "Recently, Senator McCain has come out strongly against using waterboarding as an instrument of interrogation. My question for the rest of you is, considering that Mr. McCain is the only one with any firsthand knowledge on the subject, how can those of you sharing the stage with him disagree with his position?" In response to this question Mitt Romney stated "I oppose torture. I would not be in favor of torture in any way, shape or form". Prompted by the moderator as to whether waterboarding was torture, Romney said "as a presidential candidate, I don't think it's wise for us to describe specifically which measures we would and would not use" which prompted the following exchange between McCain and Romney: McCain: "Well, governor, I'm astonished that you haven't found out what waterboarding is". Romney: "I know what waterboarding is, Senator". McCain: "Then I am astonished that you would think such a – such a torture would be inflicted on anyone in our – who we are held captive and anyone could believe that that's not torture. It's in violation of the Geneva Convention".

Waterboarding dates back to the 1500's and has been used and defined as torture During The Spanish Inquisition, the Japanese and Gestapo, to name a VERY few. The US Generals in the Vietnam war defined waterboarding as torture therefore illegal. Much to the embarrassment of the U.S. a picture surfaced of an American soldier and a South Vietnamese soldier waterboarding a North Vietnamese soldier.

"Following World War II war crime trials were convened. The Japanese were tried and convicted and hung for war crimes committed against American POWs. Among those charges for which they were convicted was waterboarding." John McCain

“Waterboarding -- that's what America does to its prisoners now. Dunking them in water until they confess. Of course, you have to remember -- we uncovered a lot of witches that way. So, credit where credit is due.” A.Whitney Brown

Information retrieved from the waterboarding may not be reliable because a person under such duress may admit to anything, as harsh interrogation techniques lead to false confessions. "The person believes they are being killed, and as such, it really amounts to a mock execution, which is illegal under international law", says John Sifton of Human Rights Watch.[13] It is "bad interrogation. I mean you can get anyone to confess to anything if the torture's bad enough", said former CIA officer Bob Baer.

So after spending a lot of time today reading definitions and rationalizations I have discovered two things:
1. I can't blog this issue without bias. It's torture. I can't offer any other definition.
2. Many people are upset at the release of our torture/"enhanced interrogation" techniques not because the find them morally wrong but because we are tipping our hand to future torturees. But newsflash: We didn't invent any of this stuff. We learned it from the kind of people who have no moral boundaries. It's been done for centuries. They KNOW how it ends. It's amazing that we do. Firsthand.