Do well publicized accidents, abuses, and over-reactions necessarily relate to the issues we're talking about?

That is the risk. Do you consider that there is the strong possibility that there are political biases in play that mean that certain information is correlated to other information by implication, or even directly? That certain actions are implicated to be correlated to other actions, where no correlation exists?

Is it within the realm of possibility? You're taking one incident and extrapolating it. Listen, despite all kinds of safeguards and checks and balances, the wrong people go to jail all the time, sometime to the death penalty. We're constantly improving the system, but it isn't perfect, and probably never will be. In all honesty, this has made me rethink my stand on the death penalty - and I'd apply that to those accused of terrorism as well. Unless we can be absolutely positive that we're not making mistakes, then that is a huge leap to make.

But, because a guy gets shot in the back in the London Underground running from the coppers does not mean that waterboarding is inappropriate because we *might* be "torturing" innocent people. The link between those two is as wide as the grand canyon. Likewise, because rogue soldiers ABUSED prisoners in one prison, does not relate to waterboarding in other prisons by qualified interrogators in controlled environments.

But clearly there are people who have a political or ideological interest in *making* the public feel this way. This is not logic, though, it is argument based on appeals to emotion.

It is WRONG.

"Why"

Well, they're innocent?

"How do you know?"

How do you know they're not?

"Ok, but, what makes you THINK they're innocent"...

They shot a man in the back as he ran in London, and he was innocent

"What does that have to do with waterboarding in US military prisons"

Well... well... I just don't LIKE it... people make mistakes...

"Yes they do. Would you rather we just sit down with them over tea and ask them to be nice and tell us if they know of any plots against us?"

*Shrug*. I don't know. The big thing is, in relative terms especially, in this conflict, that waterboarding has become such a MAJOR issue, when they've been releasing videos on a regular basis of them cutting off the heads of living hostages... puzzles me.