Torture: A Conservative Value?

So it seems the recent release of the torture memos by the Obama Administration, along with the speedy reaction of torture apologists and former Bush officials, has re-kindled what seems to be an ongoing debate among American conservatives: Is torturing one's captives a conservative value? (Or perhaps I should put it another way: Is causing extreme discomfort and severe mental anguish to one's captives a conservative value?) Or is torture just an effective method of extracting information that has no basis in ideology? Or is it something else? Here are a couple pieces done by the Real News that highlight this debate:





I suppose this all depends on which history conservatives wish to conserve, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and suggest that the torture of one's captives is an abridgement of value. What do yo think? Is torturing a person who no longer poses a threat (assuming they posed a threat to begin with - which is a HUGE assumption considering they've never been tried) a lapse of judgment and morality that has more to do with vengeance and hatred than anything else? And do those that argue in defense of torture do so because they share that hate or do they do so for other reasons? Perhaps they do so in deference to authority? That surely has been a conservative value going all the way back to the original defense of the Monarchy. If you ask me this whole issue highlights just why such deference is highly problematic.