Is it torture if it's done to our troops?

I was pleased to hear President Obama declare that waterboarding is torture. I am not satisfied to hear him continue to use the euphemism for torture, "enhanced interrogation methods" and possibly reserve the presidential right to use such methods in a time of crisis. I would like to see Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld behind bars for allowing torture to be conducted in the name of national security. President Obama, when he was still an Illinois state senator, helped pass a bill requiring the videotaping of interrogations of suspected criminals. The rationale for such a law is the fact that a confession beaten out of a suspect is likely to be false. Similarly, information gained from tortured detainees is likely to be false. The debate about what is and what isn't torture can be ended with one question: If an American soldier is detained by the enemy, and the enemy uses waterboarding, sleep deprivation, slapping, or any other enhanced interrogation methods on that American soldier, is it torture?

Diane Niesman

Wheaton