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CNN: “Attorney general dances around waterboarding issue“

Attorney General Michael Mukasey refused to legally define waterboarding as “torture” during Senate testimony Wednesday, although he acknowledged that if the interrogation technique were performed on him, he would personally “feel that it was.”

Good grief, Mukasey … stop it with the “feel” crap and just give us a straight answer. It’s not like there is really any question as to whether waterboarding qualifies as torture or not.

Let’s take a look at the dictionary definition (courtesy of dictionary.com):

1 a: anguish of body or mind : agony b: something that causes agony or pain
2: the infliction of intense pain (as from burning, crushing, or wounding) to punish, coerce, or afford sadistic pleasure

If there is any question in your mind as to whether waterboarding causes anguish or pain in light of the fact that we’ve already admitted that we might be using it to interrogate people, let’s look at what Wikipedia has to say about it:

Waterboarding is a form of torture that consists of immobilizing a person on his or her back, with the head inclined downward, and pouring water over the face and into the breathing passages. Through forced suffocation and inhalation of water, the subject experiences the process of drowning in a controlled environment and is made to believe that death is imminent. In contrast to merely submerging the head face-forward, waterboarding almost immediately elicits the gag reflex. Although waterboarding can be performed in ways that leave no lasting physical damage, it carries the risks of extreme pain, damage to the lungs, brain damage caused by oxygen deprivation, injuries (including broken bones) due to struggling against restraints, and even death. The psychological effects on victims of waterboarding can last for years after the procedure.

Anybody that denies that waterboarding is torture is lying or just ignorant.

Let’s be honest here. The idiots who are ducking and dodging the issue would be up in arms if the technique was being used on our citizens.

John McCain, to his eternal credit, was willing to state unequivocally on national TV in a recent debate that waterboarding is torture and we should not, as a nation, use that technique to interrogate people. John … I disagree with you on almost every issue, and your unwarrented and off-topic attack on Ron Paul (when you claimed people like him were responsible for Hitler coming to power) really ticked me off, but you have my respect for being a man and standing up on this issue.