Torture is wrong, but also counter-productive It doesn't produce good information.  I work with police every day and I can tell you that they do not think it is a good interrogation technique.  People will say whatever the torturer wants to hear.  If the torturer doesn't believe you he will torture you more.  Therefore the information gained has more to do with confirming beliefs than extracting more information.  Indeed, any student of Soviet history knows that the primary goal of much communist torture is to get the prisoner to confess to something that they didn't do, but that corresponds to the political needs of the torturer.  The show trials of the '30s were built on such a structure. 

Second, torture fits into a pattern quite familiar to students of the Administration.  Simply put, their worldview has involved a belief that others are unwilling to take the "hard" steps necessary for defending the country that they are willing to take.  From Iraq to wiretapping to torture, the Bush dogma has been that others are unable to act due to some sort of weakness inherent in them.  Its more than the political wedge that has been driven between the Democratic ranks, it is a core belief.  Anyone who has got the slightest glimpse of the internal struggles of the Administration knows that its more than political show, it is chapter and verse the bible that the Bush Administration has been working from since day one.   Being able to make these "hard" choices includes sacrificing everyday morals for their perceived model of the greater good.  It is Nietzsche gone awry on an unimaginable scale.