One of the questions that people seem to be unable to answer easily is, what constitutes torture? Slate has published an interactive guide to US use of torture, which includes a list of various techniques we apply and the legality of them. For me, I answer the question by considering a hypothetical. Pretend that insurgents in Iraq (or in Afghanistan) capture a US soldier who they believe has knowledge of an imminent airstrike that could very well hit civilian areas. These insurgents believe that unless they find out what the targets of those airstrikes are, their wives, children, or neighbors could very well be killed. What interrogation tactics on their part would we consider acceptable in interrogating that soldier? Of course the truth is that the insurgents probably wouldn’t adhere to any standards of treatment in that case, but that’s beside the point for this scenario. I can tell you that almost none of the tactics we read about from Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, or other hellholes around the world would be acceptable to me if applied to American soldiers, just as they are not acceptable to me when applied to our detainees.