Having affirmed America's use of torture for the greater good, it's a measure of how far we've fallen that no one can picture President Bush waking up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat.

Even in the last full year of his presidency, Mr. Bush remains contemptuous of the idea that he should feel an obligation to wrestle with his conscience -- or a hint of existential dread -- after making momentous decisions involving life and death.

That's why Mr. Bush last week vetoed Congress's attempt to ban the CIA's use of harsh interrogation techniques like waterboarding. "We have no higher responsibility than stopping terrorist attacks," Mr. Bush said in his weekly radio address. "And this is no time for Congress to abandon practices that have a proven track record of keeping America safe."

Because Mr. Bush is resolute even in the face of contrary evidence, there will be no looking back. To do so would be to risk identifying with the values of the rest of humanity.

A flash of conscience would also play into the hands of America's most implacable enemies. If al-Qaida has no qualms about using torture, why should Mr. Bush?

Defending America against terrorists takes precedence over all other considerations. During a time of war, morality is a luxury that even a so-called Christian nation can't afford.

As Americans, our highest obligation is to shop recklessly to revive the economy and to look the other way when we hear the gurgling coughs of the nearly drowned in the basement below.

We can maintain our innocence only by trusting our government to do the right thing even when what it does is immoral by every standard we've ever subscribed to.

Does it make any sense to rule out waterboarding as a legitimate tool of interrogation when it has worked so well for so many centuries?

If anything, we Americans have redeemed what was once a barbaric tool of state terror so that it is no longer steeped in an aura of medieval sadism. These days, waterboarding is applied in clinical environments with every step documented by video cameras.

When the CIA finishes an interrogation, we can only assume that the suspect's humanity has not been too debased.

Once a tool for identifying and punishing heretics, waterboarding has finally become the vehicle that could provide salvation for millions.

When our highly trained interrogators pour water into the rag-stuffed mouth of an Islamic extremist, they do so with hearts filled with regret.

To do something that terrible with any other motivation would be an inhuman act that would make the interrogators no better than the terrorists they're waterboarding.

Even as the suspect thrashes and gasps for air, we know that the radical's lungs won't burst. The prisoner doesn't know that what he's experiencing is just a simulation of drowning -- not the real thing.

It is our knowledge of our own goodness that redeems the situation. The terror felt by a terrorist undergoing nonlethal waterboarding at the hands of trained professionals is irrational -- just like the terrorist's decision to go to war against the United States in the first place.

For a terrorist to feel any terror under these circumstances shows a misunderstanding of our national morality and our laws.

Sure, he will experience excruciating pain. His gagging reflex will kick into high gear involuntarily, but he has no reason to fear for his life. It's his fault if his imagination gets the best of him.

We're the good guys and every terrorist knows it. We're committed to upholding the principles one would expect a nation founded upon Christian faith and Enlightenment ideals to live up to.

Because God blesses the nation that uses harsh interrogation techniques, Mr. Bush doesn't feel compelled to buy into the relativistic creed of the United States Congress.

Alas, even the FBI agrees with those critics of the Bush administration who contend that harsh interrogation methods are counterproductive and unnecessary.

But Mr. Bush is the first American president in history to claim a measure of omnipotence as one of the functions of his office.

While others point to the dubiousness of torture as state policy, Mr. Bush believes he, by virtue of his high office, is in a position to prove a negative -- the United States has not suffered another terrorist attack because of the president's willingness to authorize torture.

If the threat of waterboarding works this well, maybe we should consider bringing back the Iron Maiden, too.