Waterboarding is an interrogation technique which simulates the sensation of drowning without actually risking physical harm to the person being interrogated. It has come under tremendous scrutiny precisely because it seems to fall between what we ordinarily think of as torture and legal methods of inducing cooperation. With renewed interest by Congress as well as the disclosure that tapes of this method being used were destroyed by the CIA, I thought we should talk about whether this method is ethical or not.Post-Show Thoughts: I go back and forth every time I think about this. On the one hand, it must work or else I have trouble understanding why the CIA and the Administration want it. To argue that it doesn't work makes them out to be sadists, which is uncompelling. On the other hand, obviously this manner of treating other human beings made in the Image of God seems really at odds with what we all think it means to be American. This simply isn't the sort of thing we do, it's the sort of thing the people we aren't would do. Clearly our enemies do far worse, but we do not define our standards by the way our enemies violate them. So I'm left not sure what to say, which means it's a dilemma. And the way to resolve dilemmas is to first ask who has the authority to decide them. Find a person whose character you trust, who has as much information as possible, who will wrestle with the decision, and who prays. Then let that person make the decision, and then, unless you are truly certain they have done something atrocious, trust them. I'm not convinced enough that this is awful to conclude that our government has done evil here. There are many things the military does that I am grateful I don't have to decide to do, and I also understand there are limits to what they may be allowed to do. About waterboarding, I tend to say that we must go no further beyond this line, but if those in charge believe this is useful, so be it. And for Congressional leaders who knew and approved of it in 2002 to now use it as a political point, shame on them.
Links on Waterboarding:
Waterboarding by Wikipedia
Waterboarding.org
Hill Briefed on Waterboarding in 2002 by Wash. Post
Is Waterboarding Torture? by CS Monitor
Bush Admin. Blocked Critic by Wash. Post
1 comment:
Waterboarding is indeed torture. The clinical dog and pony shows to demonstrate its non-violent, but the environment and severity of how such a process is carried out makes a world of difference.
Don't take my word for it. Here is Larry Johnson, fellow Republican, and former CIA agent:
http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2007/12/11/waterboarding-and-torture/
* …in past conflicts, it warranted a court-martial…
* …defined as torture in Convention Against Torture & Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/h2catoc.htm
And the statement that it can be justified because those in charge would have to be "sadists" is a ridiculous one, given the past tragic acts of violence committed by our own government:
* …genocide in the Indian problem.
* …lying over the justification for war that goes back to Johnson and Vietnam and includes the current administration in its deceptions over WMD that have been well chronicled now.
* …indiscriminate bombing and destruction of the innocent. Yes, targets are selected to minimize such casualties, but reality is that the innocent are slain.
* …application of torture to those that are not convicted of anything nor have they been judged in any due process. What would you think if it was you and/or your family undertaking a process.
I am totally appalled that anybody calling themselves a Christian could support such a barbaric practice.
Christians for Caesar indeed!
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