It is a gash in our national conscience that the words “American” and “torture” are appearing in the same sentence. It is an outrage. It is almost impossible to believe we are even discussing whether or not torture is wrong. It is sick, dark comedy that our Congress and our president’s nominee for attorney general have been circling the mulberry bush for days about a technique like waterboarding.

What is there to debate? Waterboarding feels like drowning. Can anyone argue that putting someone through a virtual death experience is not torture? If it isn’t torture, then what is it? It would seem to be something other than interrogation, since it is impossible to interrogate a man whose head is under water.

If we electrocute someone without quite killing them, is that torture, or is it just robust interrogation? How about letting them dangle on a rope by the neck but cutting them down before they die? Is that okay? Sounds like nothing but a little robust air deprivation. How about putting them in an oven and turning it off just before their clothes catch fire? Robust heat motivation. Beatings? Robust corporal persuasion. Rendition? Why, that’s nothing but the outsourcing of robust discomfort delivery.

You cannot change facts or make a policy legitimate by using whitewashed language.

In the famous movie and Broadway musical, Tevya explains that the Jewish people have been able, like fiddlers on the roof, to keep their precarious balance throughout all their tribulations because of their traditions.

Likewise, America has survived not only because of our traditions but because of our belief in humanitarian principles reinforced by the rule of law. This has stabilized our civil liberties, our economic system, our political system, and yes–the security of our homeland.

One could easily sympathize with the quote of a soldier who recently wrote something to this effect: If a terrorist has to be tortured and it saves the life of even one American soldier, then so be it.

But torture is not required. Let’s look beyond his feelings, and our own, and see if what he is endorsing would bring about the results we want.

No American citizen or soldier will ever be safe if we establish a precedent that allows faceless, unaccountable persons to pin the “terrorist” label on any suspect, foreign or domestic, without due process. The practice of due process is not some piece of academic puffery to get criminals off the hook. It protects every one of us from the absolute corruption that can infect people who seek absolute power.

Autocratic rule is not compatible with the rule of law. We are history’s greatest hope and example of functional democracy. If we appear to be compromising the principles we have shed so much blood to establish in other parts of the world, our moral leadership and credibility are vastly diminished.

Ed Kent of BNN recounts the poignant story of how his two uncles fought in World War II for America and its principles, suffering permanent psychological trauma. My own uncle, 1st Lt. Page Martin, flew more than 30 missions over Europe in that war. He lost part of his mind, but he never lost his character.

During this war, at times it appears we have lost both our minds and our character and sacrificed our ideals in the process of defending them.

We must never open ourselves to accusations of using terror tactics to fight terror. If we give official sanction to even the appearance of torture, it makes a deplorable mockery of the spirit of the Geneva Convention, international law, and human rights, not to mention our own Constitution.

Such tactics would become the new norm in future wars. And they would be used against us–with no consequences for the perpetrators and no recourse for the victims. If the United States of America ever abandons all standards, there will be no standards anywhere.

A nation with a 43.5 billion dollar intelligence budget can surely cough up a few bucks to find effective ways to glean vital information by legal means that are consistent with our national character and our founding principles. Sadistic shortcuts such as waterboarding would bring sharp rebukes from our founding fathers.

Certainly there are times of imminent emergency where totally unsavory actions have to be conducted immediately to save thousands of lives. But that should be the rare exception, not the norm. If you post a speed limit of 60 m.p.h., you can be sure people will sometimes go 70. But set it at 70, and traffic will soon be moving at 80 or 90. We have to set our limits strictly enough that we can live with some of the inevitable excesses.

If torture becomes accepted practice in the world’s greatest democratic superpower, all in the name of protecting democracy, what democracy will there be left to protect? Bin Ladin and his ilk will have conned us into abandoning our own core values and accepting some of theirs.

We could win the war on terror and end up losing our integrity, our moral standing, and the principles that have set us apart from nearly every nation in history. No, these principles have not prevented isolated acts of brutality by America or anyone else. But they have set a higher standard that has elevated the world to a new level of civility and accountability. If we win the war by becoming more like our enemies, everybody loses.

Our core values have provided stability and balance during times of both war and peace. But we are sliding too close to the edge of the roof. Americans in and out of government need to speak up now, before the fiddler takes any more tumbles.