hvybarrels echoes my thoughts on this.
I am not for a weak America, but imagine this.
You are walking down the street, and some asshole just ups and sucker punches you. As he is about to do it again, you react.
Do you rape him? Mutilate him? Threaten to rape his family?
No, you can kick his ass so badly he is in the hospital. Maybe even rip a leg off.
And let the other guys on the street see you do it.
I think that is sufficient without going to the level of the barbarians.
You want the other guys to respect your strength BUT ALSO RESPECT YOUR BEHAVIOR.
In fact, if you are big and strong enough, nobody would even think to sucker punch you in the first place.
Imagine the USA going around acting LIKE IMPERIAL JAPAN AND THE NAZIS (doing human experiments, mass murdering women and children, impaling pregnant women on swords, etc)... this will seriously undermine our leadership in the free world. All those things are super scary, yes, and they will scare our enemies stupid, but is that what America is about?
If that is what America is about, what the F were we doing fighting the Nazis then? I thought we wanted to remove that kind of society from this world.
The whole world already says America is a warmongering Nazi nation, now trying to elect Hitler to power. No need to prove them correct.
Also as I said, this torture stuff, easily can be used on citizens. Whoever does not hand in their guns, gets tortured. Imagine that.