Imagine you are strapped to a board, unable to move, as water is being poured into your nostrils and breathing passages. Through this inhalation of water, you feel as if you are drowning and death is imminent.

This process is in a controlled environment where it is repeated until your captors receive the information they want.

Is this torture? Is this a principle of the United States, a country founded upon freedom and equality?

This month, Congress passed legislation that would ban the CIA from using harsh interrogation techniques such as waterboarding and sensory deprivation.

It is 2008, not the Dark Ages, right?

However, President George W. Bush has threatened to veto the bill on the basis that he and other politicians, such as presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), don’t want to bind the CIA by the Army Field Manual and its prohibitions.

McCain believes waterboarding is already illegal under the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005, according to The Washington Post.

This act, McCain wrote, prohibits inhumane, cruel and degrading treatment of all prisoners, which applies to the CIA as well.

McCain, who has been the champion of the anti-torture front and who most famously said, “This is not who [Americans] are,” voted no on the basis that “there should be additional techniques allowed to other agencies as long as they were not ‘torture.’”

What then are these techniques? Waterboarding? Sensory deprivation?

By vetoing this bill, the current administration effectively will legalize methods that have been deemed torture for centuries.

Torture is illegal — universally considered inhumane and immoral. It is illegal under the Convention Against Torture, international legal norms and the most respected international treaty, of which the U.S. and 194 other nations are members, the Geneva Convention.

The Geneva Convention explicitly prohibits the use of torture in any and all circumstances.

If the U.S. wishes to remain a respected leader of the international community, the current administration must act now and stop twisting the law by claiming specific circumstances call for specific action.

I’m broke, but the fact that I am broke doesn’t allow me to go rob a bank. It is illegal.

Obviously in a time of war, we wish harm upon our enemies – it’s human nature. But are we willing to violate the Geneva Convention and internationally accepted norms of human rights? Are we willing to stoop to the terrorist’s level?

America’s ability to inspire is what makes our nation great. A veto to this legislation would stain the reputation we so diligently are trying to export to the rest of the world.

By allowing torture, or other “harsh interrogation techniques,” we are cutting off our arm of morality and beating ourselves with it – causing the governments deemed as “oppressive” and “backwards” to roll over with laughter and say, “well, if they can do it … ”

In a statement to the U.S. Senate, Intelligence Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) said, “The use of harsh tactics would boomerang on the United States . retaliation is the way of the world. What we do to others, they will do to us – but worse . the debate is about more than legality, it is about morality.”

A great argument for the use of torture is the “Jack Bauer” ticking time bomb example in which there is a bomb about to detonate and the only way to stop it is by strapping the terrorists to a board and make him feel as if he is drowning.

What if he gave bad information? If you were a captive, wouldn’t you say whatever it is your captor would want to hear? In a time of war we cannot afford bad information.

Torture doesn’t work to obtain reliable information.

Historically, methods of torture have been used to get a confession, not information. If torture is effective in obtaining information, why not use it in domestic law enforcement?

To stand against torture is not to be squeamish.

One is not pro-torture or anti-torture. It would be like asking if you are pro-slavery or anti-slavery. Some things need to be left in the past.

No circumstances allow the U.S. to violate the law.

What we do at home echoes internationally. It is time we restore our morality.

- Adam Smith is a junior from Macon majoring in international affairs. He is a member of the Roosevelt Institution.