The Gaming of Torture

The initial victory is, unfortunately, awarded to the evil doers of our time.  By cleverly goading the United States into debasing itself with a legalistic work around for the rule of law, Al-Qaeda scored an important victory.  Their own questionable tactics (the only ones realistically available to them for economic and logistic reasons) can now be cast in a somewhat less negative light --kill, maim, or injure innocents? Well, everyone does it when they're desperate don't they?  Even the self-righteous Americans, well, especially the self-righteous Americans, as soon as they're threatened all that talk of liberty and the rule of law (government) of the people, by the people, for the people --evaporates.
Leaving aside the historical evidence (evidence from non-fictional sources) that the use and precidence of torture seems to indicate that it is only (conditionally) effective as a tool or DOMESTIC suppression (suppression of dissent, suppression of political rivals), one must also consider how, after an initial victory from deligitimizing America and American governance, the future gaming of torture tactics may unfold.
I would humbly suggest that Al-Qaeda planners are now in same position as their Soviet conterparts were during the cold war.  The difference is of course that the Soviets were never able to get America to hand them such a complete propaganda victory as Al-Qaeda has.  Many may argue that the victory is in the telling or broadcasting of the truth in relation to torture, that is a childish and misguided perspective, the victory was in getting America to abandon it's core principles in such a vulgar, ignorant, unskilled, and OBVIOUS way.
However, now everyone knows suspects are tortured.  (No, we don't do that anymore! --uh, yeah, right, of COURSE you don't, wink, wink)  So, every operative will be given several fancifull and intricate "plans" some of which may be plausible, others, not so much.  Planners will ASSUME that operations will be compromised. When they are compromised they will still offer benefits (torture away, waste your life and resources chasing ghosts, losing credibility, and acting in ways that debase you and your way of life).  In this scenario, a successful operation may actually have less positive impact (from Al-Qaeda's perspective), and higher negatives than an unsuccessful one!
And so, I come to the most unlikely conclusion (from my own moral perspective):  perhaps it is possible to love torture policy (an alternative conclusion could also be that future attacks will harm the causes of those conducting them more than they will harm the intended targets, but that, I suppose, will require further analysis...)