An easy answer muddled by this administration

Phil is correct to say that torture in any way, shape or form by any agent of the U.S. government -- including private contractors -- is not only wrong but counterproductive and should not be admissible as evidence against a defendant. In theory, every political, military and diplomatic agent of the U.S. government would agree with that. The real issue is agreeing on what constitutes torture.

This situation is illustrated by two issues -- first, whether the entire federal government should follow the Army Field Manual, which outlines, for military personnel, what constitutes torture. The manual says that waterboarding does in fact constitute torture. When Congress passed a bill that would have completely outlawed waterboarding, President Bush vetoed it. Even Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the presumptive Republican presidential nominee who had been a leader in getting the U.S. to renounce torture, supported the president.

The second issue involves defining what actually constitutes torture. According to a memo drafted by then-White House Counsel Alberto R. Gonzales, who went on to become attorney general, almost anything short of murder is not torture. When Gonzales resigned as attorney general, his replacement, Michael B. Mukasey, also refused to say whether waterboarding constitutes torture. Therefore, if the person lives through the interrogation, he or she by definition has not been tortured, so anything gleaned from the interrogation can be used.

Phil mentions Abu Ghraib and My Lai and the harm those two episodes have done. These were certainly horrible events that hurt our reputation around the globe. But these incidents resulted not just from negligence on the part of these soldiers' commanders; they also resulted from placing soldiers in situations for which they were not prepared. The soldiers at Abu Ghraib were Reservists with little or no background in interrogation, and Army Lt. William Calley, the soldier court-martialed for My Lai, was an Officer Candidate School graduate sent to Vietnam without adequate training.

Guantanamo is another case entirely. When former Secretary of State Colin Powell was asked last year when the detention center at the base should be closed, Powell answered, "This afternoon." Guantanamo is a textbook case of the end not justifying the means. It is a result of the climate created by an administration that has overreacted to 9/11 so much that it has tarnished nearly 250 years of American tradition.

Phil concludes with the lament from the Vietnam era, "When will we ever learn?" I am afraid that we will have to wait until a new administration.

Lawrence J. Korb, assistant secretary of Defense in the Reagan administration, is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and a senior advisor to the Center for Defense Information.