I guess you can call this polarization. I don't. It's simply denial and ignorance. As usual Jonah Goldberg is sympathetic to a reader who writes the following:
If captured by Americans, [terror suspects] may be startled by loud noises, have water splashed in their faces, or suffer the sleep deprivation of the average American college student studying for final exams, but they can rest assured, no harm will come to them. Their own mother's couldn't have guaranteed their safety with such certainty.
There is no way to be "startled" by continuous noise so loud it prevents any sleep for weeks on end, and if waterboarding meant mere splashing, I doubt it would be commemorated in Cambodia's museum of torture. As for the average American college student, how many do you know who have been forced to stay awake - by noise, hypothermia, beatings, shackling in excruciating stress positions for ... 960 hours.
NRO readers do not know these things because they do not want to know these things. Because if they were ever forced to confront reality, their heads might explode. But one thing you also know: National Review is not going to tell them. It didn't when it had a chance to stop this evil; and it won't so long as it wants to resurrect it.