What is Torture?

Torture is a crime. It has a legal definition. This is from the U.S. Code:

(1) “torture” means an act committed by a person acting under the color of law specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering (other than pain or suffering incidental to lawful sanctions) upon another person within his custody or physical control;

There are two things from that definition that jump out. First, the pain has to be "severe." So, inflicting some pain doesn't mean the act is torture. Second, the pain or suffering can be mental. Here is what is meant by mental:

(2) “severe mental pain or suffering” means the prolonged mental harm caused by or resulting from—

(A) the intentional infliction or threatened infliction of severe physical pain or suffering;

(B) the administration or application, or threatened administration or application, of mind-altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or the personality;

(C) the threat of imminent death; or

(D) the threat that another person will imminently be subjected to death, severe physical pain or suffering, or the administration or application of mind-altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or personality;

Is waterboarding torture? Waterboarding has been called "simulated drowning." Is the pain physical or mental? If the pain is mental, and the person being interrogated was told they would not die, waterboarding might not be considered torture under the above definition (the Bush-era interrogation guidelines mandated that prisoners be told they would not drown).

If the pain of waterboarding is physical, then you can inflict some pain without it being torture. Does waterboarding cross the threshold? Is it some pain or severe pain? Who decides that? The New York Times?

I agree that torture is always impermissible. But, if waterboarding is torture, how is the United States military permitted to waterboard its own troops? People who claim waterboarding is torture never reply that we should stop waterboarding our troops. Instead, they argue that it is not real waterboarding. That means their definition of torture falls somewhere between military waterboarding and CIA waterboarding. If they are capable of making such a fine distinction, maybe they can explain when some pain becomes severe, and why CIA waterboarding meets the legal definition.

There seems to be room here for a legitimate debate. Unfortunately, those claiming that waterboarding is torture are incapable of making an argument. They assert that waterboarding is torture without ever saying what the definition is or explaining why waterboarding meets it. Needless to say, their arguments fail to persuade. If they wish to make a more compelling case in the future, I recommend that they attempt to explain which pain is acceptable in interrogation, and which is severe, and why waterboarding falls into the latter category. Typing: "Waterboarding is torture. Period." is not an argument.