Waterboarding - It sounds like fun, but it's the form of controlled drowning used on prisoners that some say the US has authorized on extra-judicial prisoners. As much as I would like to see these terrorists tortured, I hope the US does the honorable thing and treats all prisoners with dignity. Ultimately, that will serve US interests best in the long-term.

Video demonstration of waterboarding at http://www.militaryspot.com/2007news/november05vida.htm

The US should never torture any prisoners, nor send them to other countries to be tortured.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: TOW Gunner,

I do think he's being a little over-dramatic there in the video. I've been on the thing. It's the complete opposite of fun, but I wasn't balling...I wasn't happy either, and I think the last thing I wanted to do was get on camera and talk about it, so I give the guy some kudos for that.

Here's an article....I don't really know what the author is trying to get at actually. He doesn't condone it, but he certainly attempts to mitigate the waterboard technique:

Excerpt--
"The most recent uproar concerns waterboarding, a practice that has become a media favorite because it is the only activity approaching torture known to have been carried out under official auspices. Waterboarding has played a large part in Judge Michael Mukasey's bid to become attorney general when he refused to define it as "torture". A number of Democrats, including the party's entire presidential slate, have declined to support Mukasey for this reason.

Waterboarding may be brutal, it may be nasty, it may even be uncalled for. But it's not torture. It does not inflict physical pain or damage. It does not destroy the victim. Its sole purpose is to create a sense of terror by arousing deep instinctive reactions against drowning, instincts shared not only by almost all mammals, but almost all vertebrates who don't happen to be fish. It is effective, it is quick, it leaves no scars and should revolt no one's conscience."

Full Article

http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/11/the_torture_fraud_of_the_left.html

Completely disagree with the article on many points. When the US defines waterboarding on it's troops as torture in WWII, the definition can not be changed because we now longer define torture THAT way. As a matter of fact, the 1992 Interrogation Manual for the US Army states that torture is defined as: "...forcing people to sit, stand or kneel in abnormal positions for prolonged periods of time." and later "mock executions". If waterboarding is not beyond "stress positions" and similar to a mock execution, I don't know what is. The current manual FM 2-22.3 is even more restrictive in defining torture (I just haven't read that one enough to quote it verbatim).

Finally, there was a decision against the UK (filed by IRA members in 1979) in European Court that defined stress positions, "hooding", and sleep deprivation as torture techniques (yeah, I know, neocons will say it's the "pussy" European Court...whatever). Again, waterboarding is not specifically mentioned, but you have to wonder, if standing at attention for prolonged periods of time is defined as torture.....

Now, the FMs only apply to DoD. I guess them other people can break the law all they want.

I think of it as a matter of what we do to them – they are going to do to us. This refers to governments or armies and not terrorists who tend to avoid such moral distinctions.

You know Harry, there's at least a half dozen reasons why we shouldn't be doing it. Even many of the conservatives admit this. But for some reason they don't want to define it as torture. And I guess I narrowed my post down to just that....

This issue is a joke, thru out history thier has been very violent methods, why is waterboarding even a subject for discussion. When at War you cannot win by being nice to the enemy. And this can go back 1,000's of years.
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