Andrew Sullivan has a small discussion on torture. Seems like it's a big topic nowadays, with people of every strip condoning the practices of torture that occured at Abu Garcia, and at Gitmo. Some detainees have died in custudy, that's an indication that they are not just 'playing heavy metal' to the prisoners. And yet...I don't condone it. I am hoping that the torture is reserved to the biggest threats, those who have killed, plotted to kill, or something similiar. These are desperate men, and many terrorists are so fanatical in their beliefs that it makes them almost immune to coercive treatment. So how else will we (US or allied forces) gain information we desperately need? And consider what the insurgents/terrorists have done to Americans; if they are captured they are almost always beheaded on television, to make a point. Further, abuses under coalition rule pale in comparison to that of Saddam's rule. It always will. YOu can't equate being humiliated (by being forces to masturbate or eat pork) for a small time, to being tortured day after day, for years on end, for no reason other than being a political threat. This is the thing that the Left often ignores, is how bad it was under Saddam. It was truely awful, every survivor account describes near hellish conditions in Saddam's Iraq.
Proof? Read on.
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Exerpt from Amenisty International Report
Joy of Joy, a video of Saddam's torture is here
Another AI report is here

Now please no one tell me that the abuse suffered at the hands of the US compares with that of Saddam. It doesn't; we'd have to randomly take tens of thousands of people per year, torture and execute them for no reason, then it would be equal.