I was disturbed when I heard Jim Comstock's claim during the Veterans Day celebrations at Konocti Vista Casino on Nov. 11 that he had been waterboarded as a part of his military training and that he didn't think it was torture.

Comstock's Survival Evasion Resistance Escape (SERE) training did not subject him to the intensity or duration of the waterboarding torture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and many others for example.

Was Comstock intentionally trying to blur the distinction between a training simulation undergone by highly motivated military volunteers and the grim reality of real waterboarding?

Comstock's message to the community was that waterboarding is a legitimate technique and no big deal. I reject his assertion and point to US law, the Nuremberg trials, and international treaties where the U.S. is a signatory to support the fact that waterboarding is a crime of torture.

Our nation must not go down this slippery slope by “legalizing” criminal acts in the name of expediency or national security.

It is too easy for a U.S. president or other high ranking official to find a career-minded attorney to construct legal theories for anything and then later say, “The lawyer said it was OK.”

Their actions have stained the integrity of the U.S. and have given powerful propaganda and recruiting tools to the enemies of the U.S. They have put our troops in ever more jeopardy.

Leaders like Jim Comstock have a moral duty to uphold the rule of law and not to erode the spirit or the letter of the law, especially Article 3 of the Geneva Convention.

Making claims that misrepresent the nature of this issue does not help us to understand the nature and consequences of these heinous policies but rather to confuse and confound the general public and thereby protect the perpetrators.

Crimes of torture have been committed by the U.S. government under the direction of top U.S. Government administration officials by their own admission.

The U.S. attorney general is obligated to prosecute those officials under the rule of law.

Steven Lehman lives in Lower Lake, Calif.