Waterboarding - Torture?

Granted, it's not the Iron Maiden or the Seat of Judgment. I would suggest anyone who says it's not torture to have someone hold his or her head in a full tub of water. Suffocation is often a greater fear than being shot or stabbed.

And just because a country has the ability to do something does not mean they should. Otherwise you could give a baby a hammer and see what happens.

The 'imminent need' argument is false. Torture of any kind has never produced significant results. All it produces is the need to say anything that will stop the pain. Once it starts, anybody and anything could be said. This was precisely what occurred during the days of the "Holy" Inquisition: suspects under torture agreed with anything the torturers said. or gave any names that came into their heads, just to stop the pain. Which gave no real information and only produced more victims for the noose and the stake.

And the same thing happens now. To stop the pain, the only 'truth' revealed is anything that will stop the pain.

This is the Holy Inquisition all over again. And we're finding "witches" everywhere. Gitmo's full of them. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Do you call the illegal surveillance of your own life a tool that should be kept? The appointed president--by the Supreme Court--has openly declared the right to go through your mail, through his executive orders. The communications companies are turning their phone records--YOUR phone records--over to the government. Every computer built in the past few years includes software so that the National Security Agency can monitor what you do.

Your movements--and your life--are being observed and recorded and whittled away, day by day, in the name of fear.

I served in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam Conflict. My oldest nephew is about to go back to Iraq for his FOURTH tour.

But that does not mean I condone torture, "legal" or otherwise. You are more likely to die from lightning or a meteor strike than in a terrorist attack. None of the groups have the ability to do massive damage to this country. Look up statistics on automobile accidents or shootings. . .hell, look at how many homeless people die in this country every year.

What's the difference between their deaths and any others?

A few weeks before 9/11--BEFORE--a drunk with a shotgun shot a few holes into the Alaskan pipeline. The result was that 25% of our oil flow was disrupted.

A drunk with a shotgun.

And "legality" does not mean being right. Slavery was "legal". Jim Crow laws were "legal".

And under Germany's laws, everything Hitler did was "legal".

It could be considered torture. But I don't think it is as bad as some other tortures which cause physical harm to the person. I think that almost any weapon we can use to save American Citizen's from Islamists should be available in our Arsenal. I don't think that it should be the first tactic, but in the case that a danger is imminent, I would prefer that the option be available.

Clearly torture:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterboarding

Hundred characters, hundred characters

Waterboarding initially was used during the Spanish Inquisition as a form of torture... so it is kind of ridiculous that the same tactics are being used by the present day CIA with extrajudicial prisoners.Moreover, the fact that the CIA attempts to hide the fact that they use this technique (with Khalid Mohammed post the al Qaeda's 2001 attacks for instance) shows that if they felt like they were not doing something wrong, they wouldnt be attempting to hide their actions.. Even in a semi-recent poll done by CNN, when asked if waterboarding should be considered as torture, more than 2/3 agreed that it was. It's too bad that despite these more than blatant signs, it is still not fully outlawed.

While I agree with your point I want to clarify your definition. I cannot take credit for this (I read it on CNN.com, if memory serves me correctly) but saying that waterboarding "simulates" drowning is a bit of a misnomer. Simulating implies that actual drowning does not take place but that the victim will feel a sensation of drowning without actually experiencing it. This is not the case. The victim IS drowning, it is just controlled. A more accurate description of waterboarding would be "controlled drowning."

I don't mean to attack what you are saying Kyle because I agree with you completely, but I read this on CNN and I thought it was convincing. Calling waterboarding "controlled" drowning is much more accurate and will hopefully show people how inhumane this torture really is.

Waterboarding is absolutely torture. How anyone can argue it is not is beyond me. Saying that it is an effective means of extracting information from a prisoner is like saying slitting the throats of babies is an effective method of keeping the human population in control. Does giving up your morals justify the ends in any way? Why not just throw out all the common laws of decency? It sickens me to think that there are people who believe there are situations where the torture of prisoners is acceptable.

When it comes right down to it all waterboarding does is simulate drowning. i think this alone merits the title of torture, and I think that everybody should be able to agree on that. It disgusts that there are still people out there that feel that waterboarding is not in fact torture at all, and those people I feel are crazy. The only justifcation that can be given is the need to gain information from suspects and that this is a good way to gain that information, however I feel that the ends don't justify the means, hence not only is waterboarding torture but it along with all other methods of torture are unjustifyed regardless of the rationale behind them.

It astonishes me that, when asked, the Republican candidates can stand next to John McCain without condemning torture outright.

I have never experienced waterboarding myself so I turn to someone very experienced in the subject--John McCain. The torture has been performed on him before and he is adamantly against it. From his description it fits every requirement of being labeled cruel and unusual punishment. It should be illegal.

For awhile now, the Bush Administration is trying to legalize torture. They're starting out by getting people to say that waterboarding is not torture. Now, if you go look at the history of waterboarding, you can see that it has been used by just about every tyrant, including Hitler. If you actually do your research, you will come to the conclusion that waterboarding is torture. Not physical torture, but psychological. People can die from it if it is overused, because they suffocate. It creates the sensation of drowning, and it terrifies the person it's being used on to the point where they actually think they're dying. It has been shown to possibly cause long-term mental health problems, too. What I find really disturbing about this is that it's actually being debated. How can this kind of stuff be debated on national television, and not seem suspicious? All of a sudden it's "okay" to torture people, because they are SUSPECTED terrorists? This country is heading towards fascism.