Its me again!
Many children in this country are beaten, starved, locked up, kept in chains, etc. It is "officially" written into our laws as "Child Abuse". Same for "Spousal Abuse", "Animal Abuse" etc. It is not called "torture" although that is certainly what the suffering subject is being subjected to. It's a shame that an "enemy combatant" should have such consideration shown for his sensitivities and rights when we have already written off the word torture for our own children and spouses.

My Websters dictionary definition of torture does not mention a distinction between assault for information or assault for it's own sake.

Some methods used to interrogate will undoubtedly be called torture by someone. Pushing a person through physical pain to confess or provide information is only likely to result in information that can't be trusted by those that must act on it. The only reason I can think of for them doing it is to provide some flimsy evidence to "prove" the WMD's were around, were sold to terrorists, ties to Al Quaida, etc.