Deciding which torture to oppose

Torturing prisoners is not only morally objectionable; it is also stupid. Even a person without much intelligence can deduce that someone might lie in order to stop getting tortured, and that those whose prisoners are tortured will be more than happy to torture our soldiers when they are the captives. It just doesn't take a lot of IQ to figure this out.

I believe that so many people back the torturing of detainees because it is sadistic. We like to have a defined "enemy"--never mind if that person has been detained for no particular reason, and never mind that torturing him or her violates the tenets of our more or less state religion.

What I wish is that people of conscience--be they liberal or conservative--who are morally opposed to the torture of detainees would also speak up about the treatment of prisoners in our own country, and about the rampant child abuse in America. And if you want to talk about torture, how about factory farming, an industry that tortures (I use the word literally) millions of helpless cows, sheep, chickens, pigs, ducks, and other animals every day? Why is it okay to sit down to a dinner of baked chicken or hamburger--knowing that the chickens and cows were put through constant, horrific pain and discomfort every day of their lives--but not okay for Americans to use a waterboard technique on detainees?