The Oxford English Dictionary defines ENHANCE as: to lift, raise; to exalt in dignity, rank or estimation; to elevate spiritually or morally; to lift up with pride.
So then, should one logically conclude that what we hear now so often described as "enhanced interrogation techniques" means MORE DIGNIFIED questioning, or SPIRITUALLY ELEVATED inquiry, or PRIDEFULLY UPLIFTED examination?
No. ENHANCED INTERROGATION TECHNIQUES means TORTURE. We in fact know that. Those who promote torture know that. Why don't we stop fooling around, fooling each other and fooling ourselves and call a spade a spade, call torture torture?
Even those against torture call torture ENHANCED INTERROGATION TECHNIQUES.
C'mon now, you can do it: T-O-R-T-U-R-E spells torture – there I just did it!
Even Mr. Rogers would need to ask: Kin you say "torture"? Shurr you kin!
It's a big demented fool indeed who thinks he can con America and the world by calling the brutalization of a fellow human by inflicting severe pain and terror upon his body and psyche anything graced by the adjective "enhanced" and a total of three inflated words when one simple word is eminently sufficient and precise, and that word is TORTURE.
But it's a bigger fool yet who swallows this semantic distortion.
But the biggest fools are those opposed to torture who still must phrase it "enhanced interrogation techniques".
And to those possessed of unrelenting partisan persuasion, be it Democrat or Republican, you need to disabuse your minds that this is a subject that deserves the protective tolerance of what you view as political discourse. Torture is not about politics. Torture is about a higher level of awareness and judgment. Torture is about humanity, its survival or its devastation.
C'mon, America, we torture, that's the real word yes, we Americans really do that. We need to call it what it is if we're determined that America ends the TORTURE! We need to do it now. Justice and history are watching. And so too are our future enemies.
