More on the Torture Memo

Clayton Cramer has an interesting post on the torture memo. His conclusion:

Defining torture is surprisingly complex. One bright line definition reduces us to begging prisoners to do what we want. Another bright line definition on the other extreme would allow infliction of pain that left no permanent injury. The mush line definition in this memo seems to be useless. I'm not happy with any of these definition so far.

I agree with this analysis. Unfortunately torture seems to be like obscenity in this regard, I cannot define it but I know it when I see it. Obviously we need more than that for a legal system to function.