Andrew Sullivan shows that he’s not above a cheap smear, by describing LGF as “the enthusiastically pro-torture site.” He uses the exact same smear tactic used by the loony left sites; he quotes a handful of extreme LGF visitor comments (and some not-so-extreme, out of a database of more than 10,000 visitors), and claims that they represent my views, despite a highly obvious disclaimer to the contrary at the top of each page of comments.

Here are my views on the subject of “torture,” very clearly expressed shortly after the Abu Ghraib story broke: Thoughts on ‘Torture’.

I’m really surprised (and increasingly irked) at how widespread the label of “torture” is becoming, to describe what took place at the Abu Ghraib prison. I expect this stuff from places like CounterPunch and Indymedia and buzzflash, but even some people who ought to know better are starting to use the term. As despicable as the acts were that these MPs are accused of, those acts were not torture.

If you believe otherwise, I’d like to know how you can equate the Abu Ghraib mistreatment with Saddam Hussein’s rape rooms, or with the iron maiden used by Uday to torture the Iraqi soccer team if they lost, or with the bastinado (caning on the soles of the feet) that was a regular punishment for Saddam’s underlings if they fell into disfavor, or with the countless acts of sheer horror that are perpetrated every day under Arab regimes.

Let me say it again, because it apparently needs to be repeated until we’re all sick to death of hearing it—what happened at Abu Ghraib was way over the line, any line, any time. If convicted, the soldiers involved should be disciplined. No one suggests otherwise.

But this is not an example of serious torture. The English language is demeaned and degraded by using such a word inappropriately, in the same way the language is degraded when creeps like Ted Rall call the US Army “indistinguishable from the SS.”

Mr. Sullivan is now an enthusiastic participant in this demeaning of the English language.

But given my statement (easily found if he had cared to look), for Mr. Sullivan to describe my site as “enthusiastically pro-torture” is a scurrilous libel, and I expect an apology.

UPDATE at 1/27/05 3:31:17 pm:

I’m not holding my breath.