Torturous Debate

There has been a buzz of late in blogs and other Web sites, over prospective Attorney General to be Michael B. Mukasey’s wishy-washy response to whether the practice of waterboarding is torture or not. AP article here.

William Cox, in a very thorough article on waterboarding on Buzzflash, describes the method quite accurately:

During water torture, the body and head of a victim are typically strapped to an inclined board with the head lower than the feet. The victim’s jaws are forced open and a cloth is forced deep into the mouth and over the nose. Water is continuously poured over and into the cloth forcing the victim to stop breathing until forced to either swallow water and/or aspirate it into the lungs, triggering the gag reflex.

Water torture results in controlled drowning, the degree of which depends upon the ability of an individual to resist and the will of the torturer. The punishment ranges from psychological torment and physical suffocation to death. At the least, water torture represents a mock execution. The primeval fear of asphyxiation leads to overwhelming panic in even the most disciplined individuals who may be trained and psychologically conditioned to die rather than submit.

Water torture can lead to serious injury to the victim. A lack of oxygen can quickly result in permanent brain damage, and the aspiration of even small amounts of water can lead to lung disease, including pneumonia. Struggles by the victim against the restraints can produce severe sprains and broken bones. Significantly, the intense fear of imminent death and the victim’s helplessness to prevent it produces devastating and long lasting psychological damage.

Put simply, for all of you ignorant pissants out there who can’t see past the “terrorism” colon surrounding your head; waterboarding is torture! It disgusts me that we even have to debate this! This is not the fashion of an educated and enlightened society, it is the action of the dark and malignant cruelty of tyranny. Those who support this practice in our government should be removed from office, stripped of rank, pulled from public service no matter what military or civilian position they hold. There is no room to be indecisive when it comes to the use of torture. It is vile and repugnant to the Constitution and the American way of life and should not be given the slightest breadth of tolerance!

If for one moment you think that this torture can’t be applied to you (as if that is justification of any kind), that it is reserved for only “the evil doers”; note that the Patriot Act allows any citizen of this nation to be taken away without charges filed, defined as a “enemy combatant”, without any right to legal council, due process of law or even the ability to contact anyone in the outside world - with only the say so of the President needed for this to occur! You and I are as much a target of this practice as any Islamic radical.

Waterboarding started in the Inquisition. It was used to torture people into confessing sins against the church. That Bush is supporting using it on people to torture them into confessing sins against the state, belays the same evil intent. The goal is not to gain information. It is simply to cause suffering against those who have been arbitrarily labeled guilty by the government, to manufacture stories and consent by force - in a sick attempt to elevate the methods and madness of government as being righteous.

Keith Olbermann expresses my entire raging ire on this, better than I can.