How pathetic can the right be? The wingnuts at redstate have attempted to define "torture" for the purpose of mitigating the effect of Senator Durbin's remarks. They argue that the so-called interrogation techniques employed by the military at Gitmo are far from what torture really is. They conclude that tying someone up does not constitute torture, even if the victim defecates on him/herself. Furthermore, the "techniques" used by the military fall under the newly-coined category "dumb things we should not do". Read on:
Okay, one thing that keeps coming up in all these Durbin/Gitmo/Torture/Nazi debates is the issue of torture.
It seems like the word torture keeps getting thrown around, and almost everything is now torture.
Can't some things just fall into a "this isn't very nice and we shouldn't be doing it" catagory?
Okay honestly-all the Koran stuff I though was more offensive than anything, and sorry, but being offensive to me doesn't equal torture. We certainly should have a policy about it, and people caught violating said policy should be reprimanded, but please let's not call them torturers or Nazis.
The prolonged use of restraints just doesn't hit super high on my torture meter. I worked in criminal justice for a while, before marriage and babies, and there are times when the use of restraints is a safety measure (which is why I would like more details on the detainees who were restrained, I mean if they detainee was attacking the interrogators every time they entered the rooms, then I think the restraints were a neccessary evil-restraints can also be used to protect a detainee from themselves). Should we set a limit on how, when, where restraints can be used? Yes, but please don't label the use of restraints in and of themselves as torture, and even the prolonged use of restraints doesn't equal torture.
I guess my argument is that there are some things that we shouldn't do to detainees, that equal wrong, but that doesn't equal torture, so why the insistence on the use of this word applied to things like Koran flushing?
Is there not some middle ground between "acceptable practices" and "torture" or does everything done that isn't within accepted humane treatment practices equal torture?
I mean if we are going to call the more minor stuff torture, what does that make the big stuff? - "Just Me"
I'm sure that such "techniques" would be defined as torture if they were being employed on our troops. Isn't it sad that the right-wing must resort to such sordid "clarifications" of what torture is in order to diminish potential ramifications? Then again, the wingnuts will do anything to take the focus off of this bullshit war and the irresponsible military actions causing such controversy. What really gets me pissed is that they don't give a shit about people other than themselves, yet they dare speak about "moral and family values", "the culture of life", and all the other garbage they have spewed at the American public.
