Language abusers include those who torture the word torture.
Torture traditionally was used as punishment or to exact pleasure for the torturer.
Take Vlad III, prince of Wallachia in 15th Century Romania, for example.
Vlad the Impaler fatally tortured thousands of his subjects. He was simply a sadist who liked to randomly inflict maximum pain on innocent men, women and children.
Modern users of "enhanced Interrogation techniques"--America's Central Intelligence Agency operators or surrogates, for example--weren't exacting punishment or doing it for pleasure
They were using harsh methods on suspected terrorists to obtain information leading to other terrorists or planned terrorist plots against America and its allies.
Waterboarding wasn't designed to punish, injure or kill. It was used to terrorize terrorists into ratting on other rats. (14 DECEMBER 2014)
