Perspective on torture

After almost six years, Sen. Diane Feinstein and her Intelligence Committee released their partisan CIA Torture Report. Amazingly, they were so brilliant, they never needed to interview anyone employed by the CIA. In rewriting history, they have not only defamed the very institution and people who have kept us safe since 9/11, but they have never understood the true meaning of the word, torture.

My definition of torture is a father trapped helplessly under a pile of debris, spending the final seconds of his life telling his wife and kids he loves them before he goes unconscious. Torture is standing next to a window and praying 100 stories above the concrete pavement below, waiting for the right second to jump, before the unbearable heat of the fire burns your skin off. Torture is sitting at your desk performing your job when suddenly, in a split second, you're vaporized from the explosion of an incoming airliner, piloted by a terrorist.

Only one terrorist detainee actually died (from hypothermia) while in the hands of the CIA. Compare that stat with a 2010 HHS report that said bad hospital care in the U.S. contributed to the deaths of 180,000 patients in Medicare, in one year alone.

Torture's definition is one's personal perspective. Maybe Sen. Diane Feinstein would have been more open and understanding if United Airlines Flight 93 had crashed into the Capitol Building on 9/11, rather than a field in Pennsylvania, killing dozens of her own colleagues.

WILLIAM PIERCEY SR., Jackson