A poll released this week found 51 percent of Americans approve of the harsh interrogation tactics the CIA used immediately after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.Imagine what those numbers would have been on Sept. 12, 2001.The NBC/Wall Street Journal survey is in synch with the results of similar opinion polls that show a majority of Americans are not naive about what “torture” is or isn’t or when it should be used.About half of those polled called the CIA’s use of water boarding, sleep deprivation and other tough interview methods “torture,” but a majority still approved of it.About 30 percent of Americans - most of them Democrats - told NBC they think the CIA went too far in the early days of the Bush administration. About 80 percent of Republicans approved the CIA’s tactics.Dick Cheney got beat up this week by the liberal media, Senate Democrats and the holier-than-thou crowd for refusing to use the word “torture” to describe the CIA’s methods of extracting information from evil people who wanted to kill us or who knew where Osama Bin Laden’s home address was.As for the future, 45 percent of those polled say the CIA should continue to use the same interrogation tactics while 28 percent said they should not. Interrogating our enemies during war is a dirty business.It’s not anything like that classy old 1950s quiz show “What’s My Line,” where a panel of well-dressed celebrities like Steve Allen had 10 questions to figure out the occupations of the mystery contestants.“Mr. Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, did you ever mastermind a plan to blow up the World Trade Center?”“No.”“OK, panel.