American soldiers subject to waterboarding
If you don’t know what waterboarding is, then check out the video from Amnesty International. I wonder how US citizens would feel if this technique was applied to captured US soldiers or citizens. I suspect there would be a huge outrage and declarations of prisoner torture violations. I have repeatedly read about the issues with the validity of intelligence gathered via torture. Why would waterboarding be any more effective than other means of torture. Won’t prisoners admit or say anything under torture that makes them believe they are close to death, thus causing intelligence gathered by such means to be even more suspect? I only hope that anyone who captures our soldiers or citizens will not see any value in torturing them.
Using such techniques, smells of desperation to me. I think flying the flag of patriotism is convenient for covering up for the fact that whoever is making these decisions doesn’t view the prisoners in the same manner that we would like our enemies to view our soldiers or citizens in captivity.
UPDATE Interesting article from Christopher Hitchens, a one time proponent of waterboarding, Believe Me, It’s Torture.
