The "Torture Candidates" Unworthy of The Nomination

This past week in New Hampshire, presidential candidates Donald Trump and Ted Cruz stated that they would advocate return of water-boarding and other forms of torture in the name of national security. For the record, it should be recalled that candidate Ben Carson had done so back in 2014 in editorials. It should be recalled that in December of 2014, CIA Director Brennan testified before Congress that torture did not add to intelligence effectiveness.  Further, that whether torture saved lives was "unknowable".  What is knowable and factual is that the CIA secretly used foreign prisons and agents to torture at sites out of the United States, euphemistically called "rendition". In so doing we shredded our constitution, twisted the law and trampled on all that we stand for and gave the enemy jihadists an enormous propaganda wedge.  The Senate Report on Torture of some 500 pages was extracted from 6500 pages--we had only a glimpse of the truth.  Perhaps this is the price of a never ending state of war. But war, Candidates Trump and Cruz, can never become an excuse for abandoning our principles of civilization.  You cannot paint your enemy as uncivilized when you yourself are not. To return to the failed policy of  President George W. Bush is terribly devoid of any enlightened leadership.  I hope the voters of New Hampshire take note today.