It's not at all hypothetical. And I don't buy your definition of torture.
If waterboarding 3 arch mass murdering terrorists stops a terrorist attack, I would be happy to pour the first bucket of water.
I would guess most americans would say the same thing.
Once again waterboarding the three terrorists stopped two major terrorist attacks which saved thousands of lives.
The better question is would you allow thousands of americans to be tortured by dying agonizing deaths because you refuse to wateboard 3 arch terrorists, whose information would thwart the attacks?
again...silly hypothetical.. How would anyone KNOW that the information any captive had would save lives until after they had divulged it?
And why not answer the rest of my slippery slope comparisons. Where does torture stop?
It reminds me of a joke. A man sit down next to a stunningly beautiful woman at a bar. He says, "Please excuse me for being so forward, but you'll soon realize that I really don't have a lot of time for small talk. I am a wealthy entrepreneur who just found out that I have pancreatic cancer and have about six months to live. I have always put work ahead of romance and that needs to stop right now. If I gave you ten million dollars, would you come away with me to my private yacht in the Mediterranean and be my lover while I still have life?" She was stunned, but he looked so sincere and was pretty good looking... and ten million dollars was a LOT of money... so she said, "Yes, you poor kind man...YES! I will go with you to your yacht in the Mediterranean". He then said, "Great! Would you slip out into the alley behind the bar right now and give me a blowjob for ten bucks?" She said, "What???? What sort of woman do you take me for????" He said, "We've already established that, now we're just haggling over the price!"
Today you torture one terrorist to save 10K Americans, tomorrow, you'll torture five hundred terrorists to maybe save ten Americans.... next year, you'll torture bank robbers to get them to tell you where they hid the loot. Once you start, you no longer can make ANY moral argument to stop.
The better comfort is too what lengths would you not go to in order to save american lives?
Would you interorgate them without a lawyer? That would could be pretty upsetting to the terrorist
Would you threaten them with longer prison sentences? That could cause emotional trauma
Would you put them in solitary confinement? People are social animals and that could be considered torture
Would you not give them high quality food? That could be pretty upseetting
Would you keep them handcuffed during interrogation? That could be considered torture and uncomfortable
Bottom line- The three terrorists were taunting the interrogators.
The waterboarding was midler than done to some of our CIA personnel in their training
All other measures failed
It worked
It stopped two major terrorist attacks, and saved thousands of american lives.
To the CIA people who did it