Waterboarding has been considered torture under the Geneva Conventions since 1959. And, because we are a country that signed the treaty, we have to abide by it, regardless of what the enemy does.
As far as saying that elite military teams go through it? Yeah, the ones that are at the very tip of the spear in billets like Army Ranger, SEAL, or RECON. And, they only go through it ONCE, so that they know what to expect in case they are captured. In the Navy, during bootcamp, I had to go through tear gas training in case of a chemical attack. Only did it once in boot camp, and never had to do it again until I volunteered for the Security Force, and there we had to go through it again for training, in case we ever experienced a gas attack while controlling crowds. Only went through it ONCE, and never had to repeat it again. Regular military personnel will never be waterboarded.
The US signed the Geneva Conventions but Congress refused to ratify them, thus we are NOT bound by that treaty.
Also, torture obviously works. Those that say it does not are lying. And fairly transparent lies, designed for the willful dupes.
Sorry, but Mattis, who will be Secretary of Defense, says it doesn't. Do you know more than him? Others like him have said the same thing... but hey you are some guy on a forum, you MUST have a better idea of what works than a General who ran military operations in the Middle East and is like by people of both political parties.
"Trump said that the advice from Mattis, a front-runner for the defense secretary post in a Trump administration, would weigh heavily on whether he will go forward with campaign pledges to bring back waterboarding and torture in interrogations by the military and the CIA.
In his meeting last week with the man he calls "Mad Dog Mattis," Trump said he asked, "What do you think of waterboarding? He said -- I was surprised -- he said,
'I've never found it to be useful.' "
Trump said Mattis told him, " 'I've always found, give me a pack of cigarettes and a couple of beers and I do better with that than I do with torture.' ""
Mattis to Trump: Beer, Cigarettes Work Better Than Waterboarding | Military.com
Hey looky here, another lie from Trump, he's not going to listen to Mattis on it.