How do we define torture? My daughter would suggest that some of my explanations of history and calculus are tortuous. I have heard people exclaim that certain exercise routines were torture.
I would propose that torture is defined by something other than discomfort or unease. It seems to me that it is one of those "pornography" things, you know it when you hear it described. It surely needs to be defined objectively, if we are to accuse someone or some organization of it. In fact, it seems to me that two questions need to be answered: What is the line between legal and illegal? and When is it productive enough to use?
I have heard said that information obtained via torture is suspect. I would extend that to say that information obtained in any way from any body is suspect, but that does not keep us from benefiting from the process of gathering and analyzing information. I have heard that it is cruel to torture, and that no civilized society would condone it, but we and everybody does cruel things all the time, sometimes we know about it, and sometimes we don't. Sometimes we do it on purpose, and sometimes it is by accident. Cruel is a matter of degree, and everything is more of less cruel. Choosing the amount of housing assistance you provide, or don't is cruel. Teaching multiplication tables by rote is so boring it's cruel. Keeping a dog captive behind a fence is cruel. But they are acceptibly cruel. Is interrrogation cruel, you bet it is. Even if you're nice, locking someone up and asking questions in captivity is cruel. When is it too cruel? When the chair is uncomfortable? When the room is too warm or cold? When they've been up longer than they'd like? When they are hungry?
Is it appropriate to capture and interrogate a prisoner? If the information they may hold could save the life of your son or daughter, how much discomfort should the suspect have to endure to extract the information?