"A rose by any other name would still smell." -- Gertrude Stein
"Big Brother is ungood" is an impossible construction. -- George Orwell
Remove the sting and a word loses meaning. Redefine the term sharply enough and you define the term out of existence. Thus, "enhanced interrogation" is not torture.
Redefining something doesn't make it go away, although a new label may change public perception. Advertisers and marketers have known and acted on this concept for a long time, and politicians even longer.
Renaming something, especially using a polysyllabic, Latin-based phrase, doesn't change its nature, but only changes people's perception of the term. "Enhanced interrogation techniques" are just as painful as when called by they really are -- torture.
Such techniques were used during the Spanish Inquisition, but since torture was defined as broken skin, loss of blood or broken bones, the inquisitors were careful not to inflict those injuries, so they could not be accused of torture. They had defined torture out of existence.
Leave no marks, and it's not torture.
Government lawyers thus twisted and rationalized definitions to clear the way for their inquisitors to use extreme measures against those they deemed to be suspects.
Their main weapons were fear, surprise and an almost fanatical devotion to Dick Cheney.
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