Clearly waterboarding is torture. Anybody authorizing this torture or doing this torture should be tried for war crimes. Nancy Pelosi seems guilty to me. She is no better than the Japanese thugs who waterboarded American POWs during World War 2.
Well if waterboarding is torture, I wonder what historians should begin calling the stuff that happened during the Middle Ages, the Inquisition, etc. Perhaps “really, really intense” torture? “Professional” torture? “Old school” torture? Isn’t it remarkable how our sensibilities have changed over the centuries—and particularly over the past few decades. But then I suppose when a jury awards millions to someone who has suffered the unspeakable pain and discomfort of having spilled coffee on her leg, well, you figure it out.
To use the same word ("waterboard") for the Japanese "water cure" used during WW2 and the scary but non-life-threatening EIT practice used briefly on unlawful enemy combatants (aka terrorists) by our intelligence community is a torture of the English language. Furthermore, the practice of waterboarding as outlined in our EIT documents, is clearly NOT torture even though it is extremely unpleasant and apparently rather terrifying. It might be extreme hazing, but it is not torture.