SEN. KIT BOND DUCKS ANSWERING, "IS WATERBOARDING TORTURE?"

I watched and heard Kit Bond on The NewsHour tonight bob and weave and escape answering whether he thought waterboarding constituted torture. Bond is the Republican senator from Missouri. Gwen Ifill tried to pin him down, just answer the question yes or no, but Bond refused.

However, he did say that "enhanced interrogation techniques" should be used only on "high value targets (HVT), as if to say that torture should be applied only "when "we know we have an important mastermind or terrorist leader." Bond of course does not call it "torture" but merely refers euphemistically to "enhanced interrogation techniques."

What amazes me is how Republicans parrot Bush's line and refuse to admit straight-out what is apparent and obvious to everyone. Waterboarding is torture and Americans should not engage in it. Not because of the utilitarian argument that if we engage in torture, our "enemies" will do it to American soldiers, and we certainly do not want that. But rather because torture is antithetical to the concept of human dignity and human liberty. No human being or any other creature should be subject to torture.

I thought we learned this lesson from the teachings of the French Enlightenment in the 17th Century. Especially after what happened during the preceding five hundred years of the cruel Inquisition occurring in almost every country in Europe. A person who is tortured will say anything his tormentors want. Even HVTs.

Imagine what happened during the Inquisition when the church authorities captured a suspected heretic. "Let's make him confess. . . . Did you consort with the devil and with evil spirits? . . . No? . . . Well then tighten the screws. . . .How about now? . . . No? . . . Tighten still further. . . .Okay, now you finally confess." And so by torture the inquisitors obtained their desired confession.

Kit Bond refuses to say whether waterboarding is torture. Michael Mukasey, the new AG, refuses to say whether waterboarding is torture. Bush refuses to say whether waterboarding is torture. Okay. Then let's have each one of these doubters forcibly waterboarded.

Let's then interrogate each. Let's ask the subject if he participated in the 9/11 conspiracy and was a friend and conspirator with Mohammed Atta. Don't take "no" for an answer. Don't stop the water torture until the subject makes a full confession.