Some letters in the Inky today echoed some of the things that the counter-protesters were shouting at us during this event. The following is my answer to those people:

Two LTEs in the Inquirer ("Waterboarding killed no one" & "Show both sides of torture") on Tuesday made the same point "Al Qaeda and various and sundry other enemies, are evil. Therefore, there can be no rules when dealing with them. There can be no concept of restraint or decency when fighting them."
The peace movement's answer to that assertion is that "Yes, al Qaeda and others are evil. No, that does not mean that America must surrender all concepts of decency. America is not just a mere, everyday, ordinary, run-of-the-mill nation. America was founded to strive for the honor of being considered the 'City on a Hill,' the nation that all people could look up to as an example."
A secondary point is that no one has shown us, given eight years of historical data, that "taking off the gloves" has resulted in any discernible improvements in our national security. No one can point to any solid gains achieved via the torture of prisoners or by any other extralegal methods.
In fact, by our disgracing ourselves, by Americans dragging their own good name through the mud, we have actually reduced our security. We've made jihadists more likely to enthusiastically take up arms against the US.
What happened when our current president took office? Al Qaeda called him a "negro." Why? Because they're deeply distressed that Barack Obama will present to their recruits a better American face, a face that's harder to fight, a face that doesn't confirm the jihadist view of America as a land of trigger-happy cowboys who shoot first and can't be bothered with questions later. This was an image that served al Qaeda very well and it angers and frustrates them that Obama has made that image obsolete.