Torture advocate Bret Stephens makes the case in The Wall Street Journal for pretending that waterboarding isn’t torture:
For the record, count me as one who does not object to the interrogation to which KSM was reportedly subjected, including waterboarding. This is not because I take the use of waterboarding lightly (although I have a hard time concluding that a technique, however terrifying, to which CIA officers are willing to subject themselves experimentally can properly be counted as torture). It’s because I take the threat posed by KSM seriously.
As Matthew Duss points out “CIA officers subject themselves to this torture as part of their training to withstand torture.” Stephens would have us believe, I guess, that the CIA does it for fun. Or maybe that since members of the military volunteer for duty that involves being shot at that guns aren’t really weapons.