Americans held in North Vietnam, including McCain, would have welcomed waterboarding v. what they endured.
Waterboarding isn’t torture.
There it is! A bit of perspective is what has lacking in this whole discussion.
Making a terrorist “uncomfortable” - even to the point of fearing for their life is nothing like having your *fingernails* pulled off one by one - while fearing for your life.
It installs panic and doesn’t leave a mark. So I don’t see it as “torture”. I would also assume they wouldn’t bother with it if they’d not seen it be successful and yield actionable intelligence that resulted in a positive outcome.