Water-Boarding: America's "Enhanced" Policy

I want to take a few minutes from studying for my history final to address the issue of water-boarding—the simulation of drowning. These days there has been much talk on the question of whether or not water-boarding qualifies as torture. The CIA calls it an “enhanced interrogation technique,” but many others call it a “terrible agony”—giving the feeling of complete disorientation, pain, and imminent death. My question: Is the United States government morally justified to use this method as a means to squeeze information out of suspected “terrorists”?

Before I continue, I would like my readers to watch this clip of a water-boarding demonstration. Keep in mind, this is not a real interrogation.



Recently, the CIA destroyed hundreds of hours of interrogation tapes, which depicted instances of water-boarding. We may never know the truth behind this cover-up, but I will say that I am very suspicious. Why wouldn’t the CIA simply classify the tapes like they do with everything else they want to be kept secret? Perhaps the suspects within the tapes were found to have no information after their “enhanced” questioning. It is more than likely that innocent individuals have been water-boarded by the CIA, which leads me to wonder if the ends justify the means? As my source below explains, the practice has supposedly worked in at least two high profile instances—but does this justify the mistakes? Does this justify the practice at all?

There is no doubt that water-boarding is indeed a form of torture. Just ask the man in the video. But there are many others who believe the same. Former U.S. deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage (who was water-boarded during his military training) says, “Of course water-boarding is torture. I can’t believe we’re even debating it. We shouldn’t be doing that kind of stuff.” It is a dated practice that has been used as a means of inflicting pain for hundreds of years; it was torture during the Spanish Inquisition, and it’s torture today.

To me, this is truly an atrocity. This is the kind of tyranny that the government claims we are fighting against. Our leaders say that the United States does not torture, but it is clear to me that they are nothing more than liars—as long as they can make up the definitions, they can do whatever they want. When will we wake up and realize that people hate this country for a reason? They hate us because of things we do to them—because of our lies and disingenuous policies. We overthrow governments, rip off third world countries, invade countries, falsely capture and imprison, suspend habeas corpus, and torture living, breathing human beings. I thought we were better than that—I thought America was the nation of justice— I thought this country had standards.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7139708.stm