You know I like Captain Ed a lot. He's a nice guy, but Ed...stop it, please. You're actually trying to spin the Nazis over the Republican Party of torture and attack the NY Times. (h/t G. Greenwald)
Many of them -- indeed, most of them -- oppose the Iraq war and especially the interrogation techniques applied by the Bush administration. They rightly remain proud of their record of using softer techniques to get the information they needed to stop the Germans. A few of them took the opportunity to make that clear during the ceremonies in New Jersey that honored their service.
It must be said, however, that they faced a different enemy in a different war. The Germans fought to expand territory through traditional warfare, at least as arrayed against the US and the West. While they conducted sabotage missions in the US through espionage, they did not use terrorist infiltrators to attempt to kill thousands of American civilians. They also did not face religious extremists who believed that death brought them to Allah and 72 waiting virgins for taking out women and children. One can make a case that the civilized techniques of PO Box 1142 worked because their detainees also believed themselves civilized and members of the Western culture.
Ed, the Nazis exterminated at least 6 million Jews (2/3 of the Jewish population in Europe) not to mention homosexuals, Gypsies and disabled people in the most horrible fashion imaginable. They were monsters. What about the millions of Russians that they killed? They thought the Aryan race was supreme and we were cattle! There's a term they used---what was it again? Oh, yea---The Master Race. That's civilized? Are you f*&king serious?
