I was opposed to water-boarding and aerial assassination when Bush did it and I'm opposed to it now. I thought Bush's two wars were insane and I still think they are insane. I think it insane that we have become involved in the "Arab spring" mess, choosing sides with no reason to believe the side we have chosen will be a friend to us or kindly to the people. I think it already quite clear that the common people of that region were better off before we got involved and they have no reason to love us for our involvement.
I see people here repeatedly saying it's OK to torture terrorists, it's OK to blow up terrorists but you all overlook the very important word "suspected". We have been torturing "suspected" terrorists to find out if they indeed are terrorists and the more we don't learn the more we torture them. Quite often the grounds for suspicion are very shaky, just being in the wrong place at the wrong time or associating with someone who also is suspected of something. That is why a civilized nation holds trials to determine guilt, they do not torture people to determine guilt. Right here in the US we all know of instances where someone was arrested for something they did not do. Do we say "well they wouldn't have been arrested if they didn't do something"? Do we just send them off to prison for what they are suspected of having done? Yes, I guess a lot of you would say that but thank goodness and our founding fathers that in this country we have a system of reasonably fair trial.
And I see people saying in a war zone anything goes. Well OK, are we now at war with Pakistan, Libya, Syria, Lebanon, the whole mid-east and north Africa? Have we granted the government the power to declare a war zone anywhere it likes without consulting the country involved nor even our own congress? How does blowing up foreign nationals in their own country make us look anything but the bully of lesser nations? You kill one suspected terrorists, maybe, and you certainly alienate the entire populace, and you think that makes us safer?