Re: "...What is waterboarding, specifically?..."
Basically amounts to "drowning" someone until they are frantically gasping for air, pulling them back up to catch one breath, and then "drowning" them again, over and over...
Waterboarding was a favorite technique of the Nazi SS.
Just ask some of your Jewish relatives with concentration camp numbers tattooed on their arms...they can tell you all about it.
Whenever the Nazi Monsters caught Jews and partisan freedom fighters, they "waterboarded" them [tortured them] until they revealed where other Jews and resistance members were hiding.
After the German surrender to the Allies, Americans charged the Nazi hierarchy with "Crimes against humanity", "Torture", and "Genocide", launching a War of Agression under false pretenses, etc. etc..., put them on public trial before the whole world at Nuremburg, Germany, found them guilty as charged, and HANGED THEM like dogs.
General George Washington personally established the policy that Americans do not and never will torture those detained in jail as well as those captured during warfare.
Mercenary Hessian soldiers under the employ of King George of England, had brutally mistreated and also tortured the American colonists, including torturing and raping women and children.
Eventually, the Revolutionary Army defeated an entire Hessian regiment. Forlorn, they accepted that they would be mistreated by their American captors exactly as they had tortured Americans whom they had captured during the fighting.
General George Washington personally intervened, and declared that America would henceforth be a moral nation, and would never practice torture.
The Hessian captives were so overwhelmed at Washington's honor and moral values, that they switched sides, and asked for asylum in America.
Their request was granted, and the Hessians laid down their arms, and remained in the areas which are now North Carolina, becoming steadfast Americans and great patriots.
TORTURE is a violation of all International Law and standards of civil behavior.
Waterboarding is torture, and those who practice it and endorse it are subject to trial as "War Criminals"; the penalty for which is hanging.
Goering and Himmler and Goebels also could find every justification for torturing captives, and, like Bush, Cheney, Powell, and more than a few U.S. Generals, felt that they were "above any and all laws" and "would never end up brought to trial".
Of course, those reading this can and will do what they choose, but if you believe "waterboarding" is acceptable behavior, then you forfeit any and all rights to complain about the Nazis' torture of righteous Jews and righteous Christians.
Curse me if you want, I could really care less.
The truth is the truth, and no amount of cheap rationalizations or phony patriotism can justify Americans torturing others.