None of the people involved in extracting information from the enemies of this country by means of torture, should be prosecuted, but then again I don't think torture should be illegal when it comes to enemies of my country.
Pain and even more so, the fear of possible pain, are huge motivators to telling the truth, I believe this. Pitch an enemy out the open door of an airborne helicopter in front of his comrade and the other guy is going to talk.
Ask John McCain, I bet even as anti-torture as he is, he would tell you that had the Vietnamese not tortured, him he would not have talked.
Information is power and power wins wars. If you can learn what your enemy is doing you can defeat him. But it must be done quickly. Depending on the rank or organizational-position of the captured enemy, the intelligence they have has a short shelf life.
After a week or so, you can leave them alone anyway because their usefulness as an information source is finished. Any operations they knew about have been changed by that time.
War is a dirty, ugly, nasty and unhappy business (as it should be so we don't do it very often) but the truth of the matter is when you fight a war you do it any way you have to, to win. And don't fall for the argument that if we don't torture them, they won't torture us. That is a falsehood that gives the enemy an advantage.
However, if torture of any kind is outlawed and it is going to be illegal to hook a car battery up to a guys testicles, don't prosecute the low level guys unless you can prove that it was done for the sadistic pleasure of the interrogator.
If they believe that they are doing what they must to protect home and country, leave them alone. And if you must prosecute someone, prosecute the people who write the policy. Maybe even the ones who ignore what's happening too.
People who do not understand the execution of warfare, do not understand that you do what you have to do to win, you do what you have to do protect your comrades and to protect those at home who will vilify you for the effort.
Maybe, just maybe if bad people around the world still feared us like they used to, they wouldn't think they can screw with us so much.
But that's just me.
