This is torture?

At long last, we've learned the horrific, allegedly Nazi-esque interrogation tactics used by the United States against terrorists.

President Barack Obama and others ran for office full of indignation, demanding the "torture" by the United States stop. Many months ago, Sen. Dick Durbin said the American interrogators were no better than the Nazis. Sen. Patrick Leahy threatened to prosecute interrogators for being too mean.

Today Obama ordered the release of top secret-classified documents related to the interrogation of terrorist Abu Zubaydah.

But according to the documents, when the CIA learned Zubaydah had information relevant to possible impending terrorist attacks, they sought and received the Justice Department's approval for enhanced interrogation methods, to try to learn more about the attacks so as to prevent them. These methods go beyond the ultra-humane standards mandated by the Department of Defense for the treatment of prisoners of war.

They include water boarding, which is sometimes called torture (even though it does no harm and causes no pain to the subject). Sleep deprivation (which the U.S. military does to every new recruit in boot camp). Slamming the subject into a false wall (to scare him, it doesn't hurt). Slapping (again, not hard enough to cause pain, just enough to surprise).

And locking Zubaydah in a tight box with (gasp!) caterpillars.

The documents detailing this interrogation system was classified for a reason. Part of enhanced interrogation is the fear of the unknown: If a terrorist does not know what awaits him on the other side of a door, he is more afraid of it and he might be more likely to talk. That fear of the unknown is no longer available.

Because of a lawsuit from the ACLU, the Obama Administration was under court order to release the documents. They should have told the ACLU and the courts to take a hike.

But they did not, and there will probably be consequences. For one, the interrogation methods detailed therein have been rendered less effective. That's bad (and, ironically, might require the future use of methods that are more forceful).

On the other hand, we now know exactly what the terrorists in custody have been put through. We know the "torture" that they have "suffered."

And we know that we can go through the rest of our lives and never again have to spend a single second worrying about how the terrorists are treated.