> Because in the wake of 9-11, you would have been very pressed to find any US adult who didnt support torturing terrorists in custody to prevent more attacks

> Because in the wake of 9-11, you would have been very pressed to find any US adult who didnt support torturing terrorists in custody to prevent more attacks That's quite a bold statement. Even among my conservative leaning co-workers in the mid-west at the time, quite a number continued to be against torture, though only a few of us were also against the (second) war in Iraq. And, as others have said, it's pretty easy to find people standing against torture in the public discourse at the time. > You have to remember the _emotional_ impact of 9-11 .... We remember it well. Even so, many of us were not so blinded as to abandon our principles.