Faithful Progressive: Americans Do Not Torture--Or Do They?: "The word 'torture' is barely ever used in this debate because the administration has decreed that the methods it uses do not constitute torture. Following dutifully along, the media uses every euphemism possible to describe these interrogation methods in a way that obscures what they really are. One searches in vain even to find the word 'torture' in most major media accounts reporting on the interrogation legislation. The issue that is really being decided has been completely whitewashed from the debate by virtue of the government's semantic maneuvers and the media's full-scale cooperation with them.
What we have, then, is a fantasyland debate. Most Americans oppose torture and oppose repudiation of the Geneva Conventions. And Bush administration officials are aggressively advocating both. But they deny that they are doing so, claiming they use only 'alternative interrogation techniques' that fall short of torture and they are merely seeking 'clarification,' not repudiation, of the Conventions."
Orwell strikes again. We don't torture because we simply change what the word "torture" means. Heh. When Clinton did that about sex, he was impeached. But Bush can make allowances for waterboarding and my SBC critic jokes about torture.
Sigh.
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