Torture is really not the issue at all. The true issue is the discursive reality of torture.
When Americans engage in torture-- that is wrong.
When Saddam engages in torture-- that passes without comment.
The "talking about" problem is precisely what Sullivan and other softies are loathe to talk about. To pretend that any form of American torture approaches some of the most basic and normative prision abuses in the global community is ridiculous.
Sullivan and other naysayers are happy to participate in this silent complicity because it serves a political agenda of undermining support for violence to stop torture-- which was one of the important warrants for the war.
I have long said that Bush and other war supporters should take the Mission Accomplished sign off the aircraft carrier and put it up over Abu Ghraib.
Why?
Because the incredible thing about Abu Ghraib is not that torture happened there-- an observation positively pedantic. The incredible thing is that American soldiers embarked on a discursive process associated with democracy about how to identify and deal appropriately with issues of torture. That is the American success and would alone justify the war.
But Sullivan and other silly naysayers are too happy crying crocodile tears about torture.
They have no sincere regard for the matter and I have no problem saying so.