Waterboarding

I find Attorney General-designate Michael Mukasey’s equivication on whether the interrogation technique called ‘waterboarding’ constitutes torture or not to be deeply disturbing. Waterboarding was considered a war crime when practiced against Americans in WWII and in Viet Nam, yet for some reason, Mukasey can’t seem to make up his mind as to whether the treatment involved is equal to torture.

This, from Malcolm Nance, a veteran of counter terrorism operations in Iraq:

1.  Waterboarding is a torture technique. Period. There is no way to gloss over it or sugarcoat it. It has no justification outside of its limited role as a training demonstrator. Our service members have to learn that the will to survive requires them accept and understand that they may be subjected to torture, but that America is better than its enemies and it is ones duty to trust in your nation and God, endure the hardships and return home with honor.

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.

Waterboarding is slow motion suffocation with enough time to contemplate the inevitability of black out and expiration – usually the person goes into hysterics on the board. For the uninitiated, it is horrifying to watch and if it goes wrong, it can lead straight to terminal hypoxia. When done right it is controlled death. Its lack of physical scarring allows the victim to recover and be threatened with its use again and again.

3. If you support the use of waterboarding on enemy captives, you support the use of that torture on any future American captives. The Small Wars Council had a spirited discussion about this earlier in the year, especially when former Marine Generals Krulak and Hoar rejected all arguments for torture.

One of the factors that Mukasey is considering before deciding for himself whether this practice is beneath the United States is whether and how it’s currently in practice, and the legality of prior arguments on the issue. In other words, he won’t define it one way or the other until he’s been convinced that he’s not going to get his new boss into deep shit. If that doesn’t reek to high heaven to you of a putrid lackey, yet another lap dog put in power to do the will of George Bush and his evil minions without regard to their legality or humanity, I don’t know what does.

UPDATE: Just saw this on Yahoo news…and it proves my point exactly.  Bush is defending Mukasey’s lack of opinion on this issue by stating, “He doesn’t know whether we use that technique or not”.  The question put to him is not whether we use it, asshole, the question is, IS IT TORTURE, and therefore, would you support its legality for use by our troops?  I understand that if it’s torture, you’re not going to be able to use it anymore (Cut the crap, saying no one knows if we’re using it or not…I’m a soccer mom in suburban CA, and I know we’re using it, so if Mukasey doesn’t know, he’s too much of an idiot for this job or any other), but the question that has been put before him is whether he condones it or not.  Gahhh.  I was going to do a Thursday 13 today, 13 things I hate about Bush and his cronies.  But how would I decide which 13 things?