Waterboarding Is Not Torture
November 9th, 2007 at 11:10pm Matt Margolis
Looks like Democrats are trying to make waterboarding an issue in the nomination of Michael Mukasey for Attorney General. Democrats want him to condemn waterboarding as torture.But, waterboarding is not torture, and I have no idea why Democrats want terrorists to be coddled, not interrogated. A friend of mine who served in the U.S. Navy gave me some firsthand information about the experience of waterboarding.
I was waterboarded during SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape) Training as a new Naval Aviator prior to reporting to my first squadron. The purpose of this training was to prepare naval aviators for what they may experience if captured during a time of war. This training was based on the experiences of Naval Aviators and others who had been prisoners during the Viet Nam War. Mr. Mukasey is correct in his assertion that stating what types of interrogation techniques we will or will not employ, allows the enemy to prepare for these interrogation during their training.
So, torture or not torture? He explained:
Waterboarding is hardly torture. It does not maim, cause permanent physical damage,or result in death. It merely simulates the sensation of drowning and having no control over your ability to end the encounter for very brief periods of time. Khalid Sheik Mohammed was subjected to this interrogation technique and was able to resist much longer than would have been expected from an individual who had not been trained to resist waterboarding. This is an indication that our enemies are being prepared for the possibility of being captured.
So, not only are Democrats insisting that we no longer use waterboarding as an interrogation technique with captured terrorists, they want Mukasey to spell out what kind of interrogation techniques we would use, which is useful information for terrorists in their training so they are prepared for such techniques in the event they are captured.Whose side are the Democrats on anyway? They don’t want us monitoring terrorist phone calls, they don’t want to properly interrogate them, but they do want to inform terrorists of how we listen to them and what kind of interrogation techniques they should prepare for.
Entry Filed under: Nominations, War on Terror
10 Comments
1. Jeremiah | November 12th, 2007 at 2:17 am
I agree, Matt.
Now, trying to get a Democrat to acknowledge that, is another story entirely!!
Jeremiah
2. InDaVa | November 12th, 2007 at 10:03 am
“A former interrogation instructor for the Navy said the words Thursday that congressional Democrats wanted to hear from Attorney General-designate Michael Mukasey: “Waterboarding is torture, period.”
“Waterboarding is torture and should be banned,” Malcolm Wrightson Nance, a former Navy instructor of prisoner of war and terrorist hostage survival programs, told a House constitutional subcommittee. “I believe that we must reject the use of the waterboard for prisoners and captives and cleanse this stain from our national honor.”
Source: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,309637,00.html
I think this guy knows what he’s talking about.
3. Sadly, No! » Put Up&hellip | November 12th, 2007 at 3:36 pm
[…] you honestly do not think that waterboarding is torture - and I’m looking at you, Matt Margolis - then have the intellectual honesty necessary to argue that men like Yukio Asano ought to have […]
4. Jelperman | November 12th, 2007 at 4:06 pm
Wasn’t Julius Streicher hanged in 1946 for writing newspaper articles that helped incite the torture and murder of prisoners?
5. Auguste | November 12th, 2007 at 8:41 pm
Waterboarding is torture, period.
6. prozacula | November 12th, 2007 at 11:29 pm
yes. waterboarding is torture. if your frat buddies do it to you, it’s part of the usual sex games. if you are someone’s prisoner, and you can’t stop it and they do it and do it and do it until you vomit and shit yourself, literally, you might feel differently.
but until you’ve done that, keep looking like a fucking idiot and keep on claiming that waterboarding, used by Nazis and Japanese alike, is not torture. fucking idiot.
7. Tim O | November 13th, 2007 at 7:59 am
I think your Navy buddy was given a “safe word” to make the torture stop.
I wonder if he picked the same safe word you two usually agree on?
8. Xenos | November 13th, 2007 at 8:08 am
They don’t want us monitoring terrorist phone calls, they don’t want to properly interrogate them, but they do want to inform terrorists of how we listen to them and what kind of interrogation techniques they should prepare for.
Exactly. You have a problem with that?
Such is the downside that a free, law abiding people face when dealing with terrorists. It may theoretically slow down our progress in the war, but helps us win the peace. Lowering ourselves to the level of the opponent has never been the American way, not since George Washington set the policy against harsh treatment of prisoners in the Revolutionary War, and not since Teddy Roosevelt insisted on the prosecution of soldiers who waterboarded Muslim Terrorists in the Phillipines. We were better than the Monarchists, we were better than the Jihadists. Were.
What an utter disgrace the Right has become when the a priori values and principles of George Washington and Teddy Roosevelt have nobody but Democrats left to defend them.
9. Joshua | November 13th, 2007 at 9:29 am
They don’t want us monitoring terrorist phone calls, they don’t want to properly interrogate them, but they do want to inform terrorists of how we listen to them and what kind of interrogation techniques they should prepare for.
Of course, this is total bullshit.
If they want to monitor terrorist phone calls, and those phone calls involve American citizens, we want them to get a warrant in compliance with the Constitution and the law. Why do you hate the Constitution?
Futhermore, we do vigorously support “proper interrogation”, however there is no evidence that waterboarding, sleep deprivation, sensory deprivation, sexual humilation, etc., is “proper interrogation”. There is, however, plenty of evidence that these things lead to lots of false confessions and bad leads. There is also the simple fact that Nazis and Japanese who engaged in these activities were convicted of war crimes for it. There is, furthermore, plenty of evidence that American soldiers will not be subject to these things if they are captured by our enemies. Because we do it to them. Ideas have consequences. Do you mind American soldiers being waterboarded, deprived of sleep, and humiliated sexually? I guess not… so the question is, why do you hate the troops?
10. Blogs For Victory »&hellip | November 29th, 2007 at 12:50 am
[…] The exchange on waterboarding and torture was interesting. McCain’s personal experience with torture made it impossible for anyone to assertively disagree with him on the issue of waterboarding. Romney could have handled it better though. While his point about not laying out what forms of interrogation will and will not be used on captured terrorists, what was really missing was the point that waterboarding is not torture. […]