Torture: Can It Be Justified?

A report being released details even more disturbing acts of torture against terror suspects. The report details how one detainee was threatened with a gun and a power drill, and another was made to believe that a prisoner in the next cell was being executed. It appears that these methods exceeded the already controversial "enhanced interrogation techniques" approved by the Bush administration.
I believe that America is better than that. We stand for justice for our own people, and we should extend that even to our enemies abroad. Regardless of who these people are, if it is not something we would accept if it were an American citizen, then we should not accept it for any foreign national either.
In my opinion, America's greatest strength has always been it's ideals. We are a nation founded primarily by idealists, people who believed in an America so great that it was sometimes unrealistic. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson set the precedence of a two-term limit for the presidency, and for over 140 years this held on precedence alone. One could look at the personal lives of these men and see hypocrisy, and perhaps that is what it was, but I think that their ideals were so lofty that even they could not live up to them. Yet they still believed.
I do not hold any personal hatred towards the interrogators who perpetrated the torture, or towards the Bush administration who encouraged it in one way or another. I see that their goal was to save American lives. In their eyes, torturing a few dozen terrorists is justified if it possibly saves American lives.
I do not believe it is worth the cost of American lives if we lose what we stand for. Do not mistake my intent, I am not a pacifist and I firmly believe that war is a necessary evil. What I do not believe is that torture is in line with the ideals of America, and as such should not happen. If there is a price to pay for that stance, I will do my best to bear it.

(On a related note: How discouraging must it be for Eminem to have his music used as a torture device.)