Experts say without a doubt, it is torture. History will demonstrate without a doubt, that the President supports the use of it.
(SALEM, Ore.) - Regular readers will not be shocked at my personal outrage over George W. Bush's support of torturing suspected enemies with the technique known as "waterboarding." The guy does not have our military's best interest at heart as respect for him falls to levels lower than ever expected.
Waterboarding makes the president's policies once again, the butt of bad jokes and parodies, like the video below from cartoonist Ignatius M. Dedd, creator of "Dead Guy, The Cartoon." While comics like Dedd help us find distraction and ultimately, perhaps survive the insanity of this presidency, it isn't in reality, funny at all.
The argument it always comes back to is, "What if that person has vital information that threatens the safety of American people?"
Sorry but that is the lamest reason anyone tries to put forward, it is the mantra or wimps and spineless politicians. Even if that person does know something, are we not better than that? Wasn't the justification of Manifest Destiny that we were "civilizing" the native population?
Anyone who watches the news knows that we are releasing detainees in droves from Guantanamo Bay lately, they are being released because most of them were misidentified. The cases against the ones who are truly threatening to us have been compromised by Bush policies. What good has any of it brought us?
We are not a civil or Christian country any longer, and the biggest irony is Bush's parading as a religious man as he sends thousands of his own countrymen to their death while the situation in Afghanistan, where the terrorists are located, has been ignored by his war desires.
Have we not learned that there is a line in the sand? Among other things, as a "Christian" nation, a concept I could debate for days, aren't we are supposed to remember this simple piece of Biblically inspired philosophy called "the Golden Rule?"
Isn't it simple to conclude that anything we do to our enemies, they will do to our own people if captured? I think that is terrible,
I realize Bush and Cheney and the lot do not have to consider such things, it will never happen to them. I fail to see how people in this country manage to continue this charade.
Each time I publish a piece like this I am accused of "being negative" and "bashing" George Bush, I wonder if it will happen this time? Are people really so snowed?
I hope the day comes when George W. Bush and his henchmen are tried and convicted for their crimes, crimes that have soiled our international reputation as a country with good intentions. I think every American should feel the same way. It is not easy to stand up, that is a fact, much easier to just keep your mouth shut and take it all as it comes, but I don't think that is what we are supposed to do when the problems in our nation are as clear as a slap in the face.
Waterboarding
It's a torture technique that simulates drowning in a controlled environment. Wikipedia says waterboarding consists of immobilizing an individual on his or her back, with the head inclined downward, and pouring water over the face to force the inhalation of water into the lungs.
Experts say without a doubt, it is torture. History will demonstrate without a doubt, that the President supports the use of it.
Waterboarding has been used to obtain information, coerce confessions, punish, and intimidate for a long time. It relies on the gag reflex and people who have been subjected to it say it assaults all of a person's senses, causing them to fear for their lives.
In contrast to merely submerging the head, waterboarding elicits the gag reflex, and can make the subject believe death is imminent. The argument behind the use of this type of torture method is to cause extreme mental distress while possibly creating no lasting physical damage to the subject. That is what this government tells you, the same ones who let war veterans wither away from PTSD untreated.
In reality, Wikipedia says the psychological effects on victims of waterboarding can last long after the procedure. "Although waterboarding in cases can leave no lasting physical damage, it carries the real risks of extreme pain, damage to the lungs, brain damage caused by oxygen deprivation, injuries as a result of struggling against restraints (including broken bones), and even death."
Forgetting Lessons from Vietnam
For the younger generations, it is important to know that our nation left hundreds of living POW's to their fates during the Vietnam War, all because some who were POW's said they were tortured. Americans lost it, they were shocked and they hated the Communists for having done this to our people. In the end, President Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger used the torture of Americans to renig on a deal to pay Vietnam $2.2 billion in war reparations.
In fact, I just published a story earlier today about a Vietnam War Air Force pilot whose body was finally recovered and sent home after 35 years. What would he think of Americans legalizing the torture of human beings? Vietnam said at the time that if we didn't pay the $2.2 billion, it would cost us the return of living Prisoners of War. Sadly, they kept their word.
Man, have we ever changed as a nation, and now we have a presidential administration that shares a torture technique used by Hitler's Nazi party. Interestingly, some nations have criminally prosecuted individuals for performing waterboarding. Those countries include the United States.
Waterboarding was in the news in September 2006, after reports claimed that the Bush administration had authorized the use of waterboarding on extrajudicial prisoners of the United States.
According to ABC News, current and former CIA officers stated that "there is a presidential finding, signed in 2002, by President Bush, Condoleezza Rice and then-Attorney General John Ashcroft approving the 'enhanced' interrogation techniques, including waterboarding."
It is time to be real about this. Maybe we can't do anything right now, but real Americans need to take action when possible against the people who are making these crazy and cruel choices with our country that in turn, represent the rest of us.
---------------------------------------------------------This video comes to you courtesy of cartoonist Ignatius M. Dedd and YouTube
Video
------------------------------------------------------------Tim King is a former U.S. Marine with almost twenty years of experience on the west coast as a television news producer, photojournalist and reporter. Today, in addition to his role as a war correspondent in Afghanistan where he spent the winter of 2006/07, this Los Angeles native serves as Salem-News.com's Executive News Editor. Salem-News.com is the nation's only truly independent high traffic news Website, affiliated only with Google News. You can send Tim an email at this address: newsroom@salem-news.com
Waterboarding: Policy of a Cruel and Unusual President (VIDEO)Salem-News.com