The Republican presidential candidates participated in their last debate Saturday before the New Hampshire primaries Tuesday. During the debate, many of the candidates discussed the issue of waterboarding and if the method of interrogation was considered torture.

For Donald Trump, the current leader in New Hampshire despite placing second in the Iowa Caucus, said he approves of waterboarding and would “bring back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding” if he were president. Trump made this comment after referencing the terror group ISIS’s recent beheadings of Westerners. Other candidates such as Ted Cruz said during the debate that waterboarding could be brought back with limited use and is not considered torture.

Whether waterboarding is actually a form of torture has been a subject of much debate in our country, especially after the terrorist attacks of 9/11. However, no matter if it is considered torture, Trump’s stance on the interrogation method and claim he would bring back much more severe methods, implying forms of torture, is frightening and a step backward for our country.

The United Nations defines torture as “any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession …” President Barack Obama signed an executive order in 2009 effectively ending the CIA’s use of waterboarding because his first attorney general Eric Holder called it torture, according to a New York Times article from that year.

The United States is an advanced, civilized country and, if the United Nations along with the member countries comparable to the United States consider torture techniques morally wrong, why should a potential leader of our country threaten to bring it back? Additionally, during an interview on the show “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Trump refused to describe what interrogation or torture methods he was referring to during the debate but would be “very much in favor of going beyond waterboarding,” according to a Washington Post article.

Trump’s views on interrogation methods and torture are archaic. The United States, along with the United Nations, has already determined that torture is immoral and wrong to implement, no matter the situation. While the question on waterboarding is less clear in our country, Trump saying he would go above and beyond the moral gray area of waterboarding to a clear violation of human rights is rehashing an old debate that is a clear waste of time.

The United States has always claimed to be a leader in our world and, with that, should come extremely high moral standards. The simple fact that this country is considering a presidential candidate who overtly expresses intentions to violate a long-held human right by the United States and the United Nations is concerning.