It is torture and its not simulated

I've been wondering since the debate started what is waterboarding. Every talks about it generally and calls it "simulated drowing". Which made me think, hey, if its just simulated drowning and as kinda innocuous (relative to other forms of torture) as everyone describes is then why would htye even use it. It would be pretty pointless. So I tried to do some research and came up with very little real, detailed description. Just alot of "they put a towel on your face and pour water over it. this simulates the feeling of drowning". Now, finally someone who seems to know all there is to know about waterboarding has written about it here http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/2007/10/waterboarding-is-torture-perio/#c000838 .

Colonel Malcolm Nance, former Master Instructor and Chief of Training at the US Navy Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape School (SERE) covers alot of ground and I highly recommend everyone read the whole post. But the most interesting thing to me was how different his description of waterboarding is. Its not "simulated" drowning. Its drowning someone slowly, filling their lungs with water till you decide to stop or they die.

2. Waterboarding is not a simulation. Unless
you have been strapped down to the
board, have endured the agonizing feeling
of the water overpowering your gag
reflex, and then feel your throat open
and allow pint after pint of water to
involuntarily fill your lungs, you
will not know the meaning of the
word.
Waterboarding is a controlled
drowning that, in the American model,
occurs under the watch of a doctor, a
psychologist, an interrogator and a
trained strap-in/strap-out team. It does
not simulate drowning, as the lungs are
actually filling with water. There
is no way to simulate that. The victim is
drowning. How much the victim is
to drown depends on the desired result (in the
form of answers to questions
shouted into the victim’s face) and the obstinacy
of the subject. A team
doctor watches the quantity of water that is ingested and
for the
physiological signs which show when the drowning effect goes from
painful
psychological experience, to horrific suffocating punishment to the
final
death spiral.2. Waterboarding is not a simulation. Unless you have been
strapped down to the board, have endured the agonizing feeling of the water
overpowering your gag reflex, and then feel your throat open and allow pint
after pint of water to involuntarily fill your lungs, you will not know the
meaning of the word.
Waterboarding is a controlled drowning that, in the
American model, occurs under the watch of a doctor, a psychologist, an
interrogator and a trained strap-in/strap-out team. It does not simulate
drowning, as the lungs are actually filling with water. There is no way to
simulate that. The victim is drowning. How much the victim is to drown
depends
on the desired result (in the form of answers to questions shouted
into the
victim’s face) and the obstinacy of the subject. A team doctor
watches the
quantity of water that is ingested and for the physiological
signs which show
when the drowning effect goes from painful psychological
experience, to horrific
suffocating punishment to the final death
spiral

Thats torture. Now can someone, like say congress or a network newscaster explain this to the rest of america instead pretending waterboarding it the equivalent of a warm towel you use to wipe your face when you wake up in the morning?