In light of the recent controversy surrounding the nomination of retired federal Judge Michael Mukasey to the position of attorney general, I thought I would weigh in.

Mukasey has not come out and called waterboarding a form of torture, thus riling the feathers of Democrats who want him to come out and unequivocally term it a form of torture. Forget for a second the fact that the Democrats have been looking the other way for years on waterboarding, and let us focus on the hypocrisy of the this administration not labeling it torture.

As Joan Walsh, the editor of salon.com points out, after World War II, when the United States prosecuted Japanese soldiers for war crimes, there were some who were convicted of the crime of waterboarding. This was done during the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, known as the Tokyo War Crimes Trials. How is it that our own government can prosecute someone for waterboaring, and yet some 60 years later, it all of the sudden is debatable whether it is actually a crime? I was watching television the other day, and someone (unfortunately I forget who) pointed out that waterboarding was first used during the Spanish Inquisition. Do we really want to have a debate about the ethics of something that was invented during the Spanish Inquisition?

Some people, such as Mike Huckabee, have claimed that we are fighting a different kind of war. They claim we are fighting "Islamofacism," which is the worst type of enemy this country has ever seen, and as such, certain harsh techniques are necessary to win the war on terror.

Alright, two responses:

1. Really? These are the worst people the United States has ever fought. As Bill Maher www.crooksandliars.com/2007/10/27/bill-maher-to-the-gop-stop-the-scaremongering-on-iran so aptly puts it, worse than the Nazis and Stalin?
2. Just because we are fighting different types of people does not obscure the fact that when you simulate drowning someone, as waterboarding does, that person will tell you where Jimmy Hoffa is buried if that will get you to stop. It does not mean that the information is reliable or accurate. It just means that they want you to stop. So, even if Mukasey gets confirmed, and I assume he will, can the administration please cut the lying and hypocrisy and just admit that they are torturing people? By trying to argue semantics, all it does it make it all that more obvious that what is happening to these people is torture. A rose by any other name is still a rose.