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Rick Perry during last night's debate. RICHARD SHIRO/AP/Press Association Images
2012Elections

Is waterboarding a form of torture? GOP presidential candidates aren't sure

The GOP members battling it out for the presidential nomination were at loggerheads last night about foreign policy, foreign aid and whether waterboarding is a form of torture.

ANOTHER GOP DEBATE took place in the US last night as potential presidential candidates battle it out for the Republican party nomination.

Rick Perry continued to joke about that debate gaffe but still hit out at the Barack Obama’s foreign policy.

Although all of the candidates were scathing about the current administration, they offered widely varied positions on foreign aid, how to deal with Iran and whether waterboarding is actually a method of torture, reports the LA Times.

Here are some of the most noteworthy quotes from the night:

Mitt Romney on Iran:

If we re-elect Barack Obama, Iran will have a nuclear weapon. And if you elect Mitt Romney, Iran will not have a nuclear weapon.”

Newt Gingrich also on Iran:

There are a number of ways to be smart about Iran, and a few ways to be stupid. The administration skipped all the ways to be smart.”

Herman Cain on the banned act of waterboarding:

I do not agree with torture. Period. However, I trust our military leaders to decide what is and what is not torture…I believe that it is an enhanced interrogation technique and I would return to that policy.

Ron Paul on torture:

Waterboarding is torture and it is illegal and immoral…it is also un-American.

Rick Perry on waterboarding:

For us not to have the ability to extract information to save our young people’s lives is a travesty. This is war.”

Michelle Bachmann on the war on terror:

Under Obama, it is as if the US has decided it wants to lose on the War on Terror.”

Romney on China:

We can’t just sit back and let China run all over us. People say, well, you’ll start a trade war. There’s one going on right now, folks. They’re stealing our jobs and we’re going to stand up to China.”

Perry on foreign aid:

The foreign aid budget in my administration for every country is going to start at zero dollars. Zero dollars. … Then we’ll have a conversation in this country about whether or not a penny of our taxpayer dollars needs to go into those countries.”

Bachmann on Israel:

It seems that the table is being set for worldwide nuclear war against Israel. And if there’s anything that we know, President Obama has been more than willing to stand with Occupy Wall Street, but he hasn’t been willing to stand with Israel.”

-Additional reporting by AP and Business Insider

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