This letter opposes Paul Dunn's position as expressed in his May 20 column, "Waterboarding and the Apologists for Torture." Call this technique torture or not, I'm not apologizing. I support "enhanced interrogation techniques," including waterboarding.

The argument that very often the suspect will say anything to stop the process does not move me. Even one success out of 10 is good enough.

A second argument repeatedly made is that American military and civilian personnel could be waterboarded in retaliation. I think most Americans would choose waterboarding over having their throats slit or being beheaded, with photos on the Internet.

As for "negative international reaction" I'm LOL. What's France going to do, return the single Gitmo prisoner? Are Russia, China, Iran, Venezuela and the rest of the U.N. gang of hypocrites going to play their moral card?

Or perhaps NATO, with two million men under arms, will cease sending a few noncombatants to confront their enemy in Afghanistan. Oh, the risk!

I'll take a series of pictures to the grave. The sight of my fellow citizens in the city of my birth choosing to plunge 70 stories rather than being burned alive. The sons and relatives of friends I grew up with rushing to their death in an attempt to save their fellow citizens. Their crime? They went to work that morning.

President Obama states that we are not at war with the Muslim world. The Muslim extremists say they are at war with us. Countless Muslims who danced in the streets following 9/11 support the extremists' position.

By the way, Dunn forgot to mention that his enlightened, prescient Republican hero, Colin Powell, carried water for the Bush administration and sold their Iraq position to the world. Invasion and disaster followed shortly. How's that for enlightened foresight?

Michael J. Keogh

Pinehurst