Dammit, it's not abuse, it's torture, people!

I hate euphemisms, especially those being put out by the government & their propaganda apparatus. "Abuse" is their weasely way of saying "we weren't actually torturing people", and then sucking opponents into semantic games. I was just looking through thread headlines, and saw tons of "abuse"; almost no "torture", even here on DU. Naming a thing is power! Call it what it is.

i am with you. the day rumsfiled told me to use abuse is the day i refused

But the corporate media must tow the White House line or else they don't get tax cuts.

do you have a term you'd prefer? I'd like to hear it, since as I said, I really dislike euphemisms. However, it does strike me as being in a different realm from the torture in Iraq, in that it's not a war situation, it's not between strangers, and so forth.

Another that grated on me was "sexually transmitted disease", which at the time it was promulgated (early 80's) was explained to me by earnest young clinicians as being preferable to "venereal disease" with all its load of negative connotations.

There was a huge thread posted by somne misguided member that was coaching us to "keep it in proportion". :eyes:

they are not "detainees", they are PRISONERS OF WAR, and YES the word should be "reparations"

andrea-but i shalessly had to lift this...It's too appropriate

http://blog.shamelessagitator.com

Call it what it is -- TORTURE


I am sick and tired of watching people fall prey to the slime-ball tactics of Shrub & Co.

At a press conference on May 4th, Donald Rumsfeld said "what has been charged thus far is abuse, which I believe technically is different from torture. I don't know if the -- it is correct to say what you just said, that torture has taken place, or that there's been a conviction for torture. And therefore I'm not going to address the torture word."

Suddenly, everyone is talking about the "abuse" of Iraqi prisoners instead of the TORTURE of Iraqi prisoners. Why the switch? Just because Rummy says so?

I listened in shock as Al Franken fell prey. On his show yesterday, he stopped using the torture word. For the first time, I sent him an email explaining that he was doing exactly what Shrub and Company want him to do -- change the word, change the meaning, change the message. Has he become an agent of the republican establishment?

SUCKER!

Come on, now. Call it what it is. Read the report. Is that merely abuse?

The acts perpetrated against Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers is TORTURE.

tor·ture (tôrchr) noun.

1. Infliction of severe physical pain as a means of punishment or coercion.
2. Excruciating physical or mental pain; agony: the torture of waiting in suspense.
3. Something causing severe pain or anguish.


To call it anything else is to further denigrate those who were tortured.

They're not CONTRACTORS, they're MERCENARIES, they're SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE.