Torture

If this Mazzetti/Hulse writing team had any gumption they would have used the word torture. The definition of torture is not blurry in any way; “the act of inflicting excruciating pain, as punishment or revenge, as a means of getting a confession or information, or for sheer cruelty; extreme anguish of body or mind; agony.” Though the idea may be immoral and violent, all is fair in love and war. In the NY Times article, Panetta is quoted to have written the following in the Washington Monthly, “Those who support torture may believe that we can abuse captives in certain select circumstances...” This is coming from the man soon to be responsible for finding Al Qaeda. The authors are discussing torture, the quotes they use are about torture, and an underlying current of the article is torture. The long and short of it is that the writers didn’t use the word torture because they were afraid of negative feedback.