Torture is wrong, what's so hard to understand about that?

Anyway, this is such an important moral issue, and John Warner, John McCain and Lindsey Graham should be commended for their latest stand. The quote from Paul Krugman is thanks to Steve Guillard at his blog, as I don't have a Times editorial subscription. My post follows:
Update: Eugene Robinson tackles this issue today in the Washington Post.

http://www.washingto...

It's past time to stop mincing words. The Decider, or maybe we should now call him the Inquisitor, sticks to anodyne euphemisms. He speaks of "alternative" questioning techniques, and his umbrella term for the whole shop of horrors is "the program." Of course, he won't fully detail the methods that were used in the secret CIA prisons -- and who knows where else? -- but various sources have said they have included not just the infamous "waterboarding," which the administration apparently will reluctantly forswear, but also sleep deprivation, exposure to cold, bombardment with ear-splitting noise and other assaults that cause not just mental duress but physical agony. That is torture, and to call it anything else is a lie.

I feel like I'm just talking to sadists (those who can possibly defend the use of torture) who really won't listen to me, but I will continue to post on this topic because it is so absolutely morally wrong. I don't care your religion or lack of it: TORTURE IS WRONG.

I won't go into an argument about non-combatants being covered by the Geneva convention- what a reprehensible argument. It is this simple: TORTURE IS WRONG. And the people fighting Bush on torture should know. And then there is this from Paul Krugman, a small sampling, if you have any doubt that this administration is talking about LEGALIZING TORTURE. Not extreme measures, but TORTURE.

But I haven+óGé¼Gäót seen much discussion of the underlying question: why is Mr. Bush so determined to engage in torture?

Let+óGé¼Gäós be clear what we+óGé¼Gäóre talking about here. According to an ABC News report from last fall, procedures used by C.I.A. interrogators have included forcing prisoners to +óGé¼+ôstand, handcuffed and with their feet shackled to an eye bolt in the floor for more than 40 hours+óGé¼-¥; the +óGé¼+ôcold cell,+óGé¼-¥ in which prisoners are forced +óGé¼+ôto stand naked in a cell kept near 50 degrees,+óGé¼-¥ while being doused with cold water; and, of course, water boarding, in which +óGé¼+ôthe prisoner is bound to an inclined board, feet raised and head slightly below the feet,+óGé¼-¥ then +óGé¼+ôcellophane is wrapped over the prisoner+óGé¼Gäós face and water is poured over him,+óGé¼-¥ inducing +óGé¼+ôa terrifying fear of drowning.+óGé¼-¥

And bear in mind that the +óGé¼+ôfew bad apples+óGé¼-¥ excuse doesn+óGé¼Gäót apply; these were officially approved tactics +óGé¼GÇ¥ and Mr. Bush wants at least some of these tactics to remain in use.

See also: Abu Gharib and the 60 minutes segment on pulping prisoners' thighs until they bleed to death. This is ABOUT TORTURE. Torture is morally wrong.

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