The News Media is Torturing Us

The "Torture Memos" have the unhinged Bush haters ululating with excitement.

Here's a simple question for those screaming "torture!" What is the definition of torture? Not your definition, but the only one that counts in this discussion, the legal One. Here is one definition from the US Code:

Section 2340A of Title 18, United States Code, prohibits torture committed by public officials under color of law against persons within the public official's custody or control. Torture is defined to include acts specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering. (It does not include such pain or suffering incidental to lawful sanctions.) The statute applies only to acts of torture committed outside the United States. There is Federal extraterritorial jurisdiction over such acts whenever the perpetrator is a national of the United States or the alleged offender is found within the United States, irrespective of the nationality of the victim or the alleged offender.

You can read the International Committee of the Red Cross's broader definition here .

The screaming hordes spilling ink and infesting our radios and TV sets have so misused and sensationalized this word, but no one has started by defining it. Such blather is unproductive and unworthy of your attention. These sensationalists also risk falling prey to the logical fallacy of equivocation, where the meaning of a word, especially an emotional one like torture, is shifted to fit the arguer's agenda.

This tower of babble has various agendas: The lefties use it to further castigate and discredit the Bush "regime," and the good folks at FOX, CNN, et al are milking it to rake in the advertising dollars by keeping you agitated and tuned in. Getting at the truth has nothing to do with it.

How can the critics be so sure we tortured when they can't even honestly define it?

DOJ Manual
ICRC
HuffPo
Wikipedia - Equivocation