It is being called torture because the Geneva Conventions, as well as our own laws, have defined such things as torture. This isn't about politics. But of course Bush asserts that we do not torture because, by definition, if we are doing it it cannot be torture. It is the same rationale that led Nixon to say that "if the President does it, that means it's not illegal.". . Remember also that none of these people has even been charged, let alone convicted, of anything. They are simply being "detained for questioning." The Pentagon has admitted that most of the people in their "care" are probably guilty only of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. . . If what is being done to the detainees is so benign, then why is it that so many people, including military people, from privates to generals, are objecting to it. If for no other reason, look at it from a practical standpoint: if we are subjecting people to ear-splitting noise for hours on end, depriving them of sleep for days on end, beating them, shocking them, starving them, waterboarding them, etc., how can we then complain when some future enemy turns around and does the same thing to captured Americans. Do you not see the practical dilemma, at least, since you clearly do not see the moral one?