We don't torture. Or at least, we shouldn't, and anyone who did, or who authorized it, or constructed elaborate legal fictions to justify it, should have the courage of their convictions to stand trial. They broke the law: laws of this nation, and moral laws that precede the Bill of Rights, let alone the Torture Convention and the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
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You are absolutely right.
When people defend the use of torture with dreamed up scenarios, they are issing the obvious answer.
What if you have Osama contained and he is the only one who knows about a hundred a-bombs within the US?
Shouldn't torture be ok?
No it shouldn't but if you truly believe torturing will save millions of people, then why should it being illegal stop you?
If it is so important, then torture and face your trial and punishment without whining. If its so important that you can torture for it, then its so important that you can go to jail for it.
So if the torture of detainees was necessary to protect the US, Bush and his croonies should be more than willing to go to jail for the greater good.