Regarding the torture program implemented by the Bush administration:
You can excuse torture all you want. But it's still torture. When something is wrong, which this clearly is, everyone knows it, but not everyone will speak up about it.
It's telling how Republicans, and their enablers, have taken the same position as many despots from the past. Torture wasn't torture, it was simply tough questioning, it was legal because we have this piece of paper (see), it wasn't that bad, we did it to save you, blah blah blah. Same things you heard from Pinochet, Franco, the USSR, etc.
Go ahead and lump yourselves into that crowd. You'll be doing nothing less than marginalizing yourselves for generations to come.
President Obama is right not to prosecute (at this time). He can't do so and hold the loyalties of the clandestine operators. However, Jay Bybee, who wrote some of the torture memos, sits on the US Court of Appeals. That needs to be changed, by impeachment or resignation. You cannot condone torture and then be expected to enforce the Bill of Rights. The American Medical Association should make clear rules state that doctors who participate in such activities cannot hold a medical license in the civilian world.
Here are interesting links:
Andrew SullivanMore SullivanBazelon - SlateLithwick - Slate