I thought it was a little ironic that Barack Obama would quote Winston Churchill in a positive light last evening, seeing as he recently removed a bust of the Prime Minister from his office reportedly due to Churchill’s treatment of his grandfather in Kenya. But I guess you’ll use whatever comes along in an attempt to justify your position.

Q: Thank you, Mr. President. You’ve said in the past that waterboarding, in your opinion, is torture. Torture is a violation of international law and the Geneva Conventions. Do you believe that the previous administration sanctioned torture?

OBAMA: What I’ve said — and I will repeat — is that waterboarding violates our ideals and our values. I do believe that it is torture. I don’t think that’s just my opinion; that’s the opinion of many who’ve examined the topic. And that’s why I put an end to these practices.

I am absolutely convinced it was the right thing to do, not because there might not have been information that was yielded by these various detainees who were subjected to this treatment, but because we could have gotten this information in other ways, in ways that were consistent with our values, in ways that were consistent with who we are.

I was struck by an article that I was reading the other day talking about the fact that the British during World War II, when London was being bombed to smithereens, had 200 or so detainees. And Churchill said, “We don’t torture,” when the entire British — all of the British people were being subjected to unimaginable risk and threat.

And then the reason was that Churchill understood — you start taking shortcuts, over time, that corrodes what’s — what’s best in a people. It corrodes the character of a country.

Yeah, one problem. As Ben Smith at The Politico points out, The Guardian published an article in 2005 documenting torture of German prisoners in the “London Cage” from 1940 to 1948.

The paper described the facility as a “torture centre” and quotes one detainee — an SS officer — alleging “that he was doused in cold water, pushed down stairs, and beaten with a cudgel. Later, he says, he was forced to stand beside a large gas stove with all its rings lit before being confined in a shower which sprayed extremely cold water from the sides as well as from above. Finally, the SS man says, he and another prisoner were taken into the gardens behind the mansions, where they were forced to run in circles while carrying heavy logs.”

And who was the British Prime Minister during that time? Why, Winston Churchill for 5 of the 8 years. You know, the same guy who Obama thinks would nevuh go near torturing anyone evuh. By the way, what was the purposes of this “London Cage”?

The London Cage was run by MI19, the section of the War Office responsible for gleaning information from enemy prisoners of war, and few outside this organisation knew exactly what went on beyond the single barbed-wire fence that separated the three houses from the busy streets and grand parks of west London.

Ah, fun.