509

It is morally wrong to torture people. By quibling about definitions, you are leaping off the cliff that Tom speaks of and you are setting up troops in confused circumstances for big trouble; that is the situation the two generals speak of.

To say this or that isn't really torture, but it hurts them just enough to make them talk, is trying to have it both ways. You are intentionally hurting them for your ends. That to me is acceptance of torture as legitimate.

In the US, detention in and of itself is the punishment. Just being locked up is unpleasant. A guy who gets picked up on Saturday morning for a $200 traffic warrant and can't see the judge until Monday morning shouldn't be put through a wringer.