Thank you for responding. No. I don't think "just leaving" would have improved the situation. A screaming match and fists wouldn't have improved the situation

Thank you for responding. No. I don't think "just leaving" would have improved the situation. A screaming match and fists wouldn't have improved the situation either. American culture has found itself in this weird space where arguments that were supposedly settled in the last century are apparently still up for debate. In the case of torture, there are two questions at hand: One, does it work, and two, if it works, is its use defensible. Believing the first is ignorant; believing the second is inhumane. I don't see any sort of constructive middle ground or even argument to be had over such a basic conversation of good vs. evil. Since I spent most of 2004-2008 in a state of rage over the presence and defense of actual evil in a country and society that I love, I would not have had the self-control necessary to engage in a dialogue. So I would have left. (The down-voting was weird but predictable.)