War defines torture, not waterboarding

We will never know the details of every terrifying, agonizing death inflicted on our brave soldiers by our enemy, on the battlefield or in captivity. Or how many now live in agony, struggling to gain back normal lives, suffering more than anyone who has ever been water-boarded. Torture is defined as "extreme anguish of body or mind." War is the embodiment of torture.

Our enemies who were water-boarded did not die, nor were they incapacitated. The effort to smear those formerly in power seems petty and demeaning. It seems we hate our own as well as our enemies. Dire times are surely ahead of America. Will more "humane" treatment of our enemies protect us from further attack simply because we will be "nicer?" Why must we bare all our secrets to a hostile world? We punish our children in love but not the murderer that invades our home. War is cruel, not a test of propriety.

Elizabeth Pearson

Elmhurst