President Obama made a number of remarks about torture at his first 100 days press conference:
What I've said -- and I will repeat -- is that waterboarding violates our ideals and our values. I do believe that it is torture...
I am absolutely convinced [ending torture as American policy] was the right thing to do, not because there might not have been information that was yielded by these various detainees who were subjected to this treatment, but because we could have gotten this information in other ways, in ways that were consistent with our values, in ways that were consistent with who we are...
[Y]ou start taking short-cuts, over time, that corrodes what's -- what's best in a people. It corrodes the character of a country...
In some cases, it may be harder, but part of what makes us, I think, still a beacon to the world is that we are willing to hold true to our ideals even when it's hard, not just when it's easy...
And I think the American people over time will recognize that it is better for us to stick to who we are, even when we're taking on an unscrupulous enemy...
I will do whatever is required to keep the American people safe. But I am absolutely convinced that the best way I can do that is to make sure that we are not taking short cuts that undermine who we are...
This I think is the right approach to take about torture, both morally and politically. The utilitarian arguments like "torture doesn't work," "it's a recruitment tool for al-Qaeda," "it gives you false information," 'it leads combatants to not be willing to surrender," and so on all may be true but they miss the essential point, which is that civilized peoples long ago agreed that torture is a barbarism that the world is better without.
Kevin Drum put it very well:
I don't care about the Geneva Conventions or U.S. law. I don't care about the difference between torture and "harsh treatment." I don't care about the difference between uniformed combatants and terrorists. I don't care whether it "works." I oppose torture regardless of the current state of the law; I oppose even moderate abuse of helpless detainees; I oppose abuse of criminal suspects and religious heretics as much as I oppose it during wartime; and I oppose it even if it produces useful information.
The whole point of civilization is as much moral advancement as it is physical and technological advancement. But that moral progress comes slowly and very, very tenuously. In the United States alone, it took centuries to decide that slavery was evil, that children shouldn't be allowed to work 12-hour days on power looms, and that police shouldn't be allowed to beat confessions out of suspects.
On other things there's no consensus yet. Like it or not, we still make war, and so does the rest of the world. But at least until recently, there was a consensus that torture is wrong. Full stop. It was the practice of tyrants and barbarians. But like all moral progress, the consensus on torture is tenuous, and the only way to hold on to it — the only way to expand it — is by insisting absolutely and without exception that we not allow ourselves to backslide. ..
[T]he consensus against torture is one of our civilization's few unqualified moral advances, and it's a consensus won only after centuries of horror and brutality. We just can't lose it.
President Obama spoke in the language of values. He reached out to the idealism that's a part of how Americans view themselves, no matter which side of the partisan divide they're on. The idealism that says that we as a country will do the right thing even if that makes our road a bit harder. I don't think ending a policy of torture will make the road harder. I think it will make it easier for the country as a member of the nations of the world, but it is a good way of reaching out to those who may disagree on the policy change but recognize and agree with the underlying values.
Now one more thing.
The next step after acknowledging that wrongs have been done is to seek justice to set them right, by prosecutions if necessary. President Obama said he thought waterboarding was torture. Torture is a war crime, under international and domestic law. America must be willing to uphold the rule of law even when it's hard, not just when it's easy.