Did grandpa use torture?

My headline is glib, but the question is sincere: America has faced plenty of dangerous wars in the past, overcoming Nazis, Commies, Confederate traitors, you name it.

Many of those threats occurred right here on American soil. Did we need torture to win those fights?

(I’m setting aside for the moment the question of morality and values.)

If so, how exactly did torturing prisoners help? (From the vantage point of history, we should have a fairly clear, apolitical view of this.)

If it didn’t help, why do we need it now?

So I pose this as a question to all you blog-profs out there: Anyone know the answer? What’s our society’s track record here?