American Water Torture

• ·         Is waterboarding equivalent to torture?
• ·         Is it possible to attain the actual truth by using forceful truth-seeking methods?
• ·         Is it okay to use less than ethical methods to gain intel necessary to protect our country?

I asked you in my last blog if you were a flight or fight person. Can you come up with an answer as to what you would do if you were held against your will and not able to do either? I am now wondering if it is possible to attain the actual truth by using forceful truth-seeking methods. Christopher Hitchens by all means displayed an act of bravery in order to research the material needed for his piece Believe Me It’s Torture, where he undergoes a supervised version of “waterboarding”, which is being blindfolded, tied to a board, hung at an angle with the head lower than the heart and undergoing water torture where drowning, or near-drowning, is forcefully applied in order to get the victim to talk. It seems that the scale has moved, as he describes, to where similarly barbaric tactics are now being used to retrieve information from our enemies, but some will say that they are the more cruel with their electrodes and pincers and such. Although the author describes this as watered down version of methods that are practiced elsewhere, which is cruel and unusual treatment, is the resulting confession really what was being sought out or is it just something, anything, to make it stop?

I personally think it is the latter result. To me, this is equivalent to screaming “Uncle” when being continuously tickled or antagonized by a bully. A person will succumb to anything in order to gain release and regain composure. I cannot imagine that clarity in thoughts is present during any form of torture or extreme interrogation. Furthermore, if I try to envision the mind of a fanatic such as a member of Al Qaeda, anything and everything will be done to harm, deter, or confuse us (their enemy) in any way. This could include giving false information regardless of method of imprisonment or interrogation. After all, these bad guys are fanatical and passionate about their cause andwilling to die for its greater good.