1. Is water boarding torture?
2. Do you think the US used water boarding towards prisoners from Al Qaeda?
3. How long did you last the water boarding?
Part 2:
1. Is water boarding torture?
After reading Christopher Hitchens piece “Believe Me, It’s Torture”,
I was shocked that at his ripe age and the condition of his smoker lungs, he
would decide to try water boarding. The way he described his experience and how
he describes being drowned, it reminded me of my drowning experience. When I was
nine years old, my family and I went to the beach. I swam pretty far into the
ocean and after a while a huge wave started to form so I decided to swim back,
it was a struggle considering I wasn’t a strong swimmer and the current was
pulling me back. It was too late the current sucked me in, while I was inside of
the wave I was thrown like a tumble weed and had the wind knocked out of me,
thus inhaled a large amount of water thru my nose and mouth until the current
roughly pushed me back to land. When I was back in land I was disoriented,
bleeding from my legs due to the sand scraping them, and coughed up some of the
water. I do think that water boarding is a form of torture, just because there
not using electrodes another things doesn’t mean the person is not in pain.
Hitchens mentions that water boarding can cause serious injury not just physical
but emotional, psychological, and even death; so, how something like that can
cause that much pain and for it not be considered torture in some people’s
mind. I can understand why the Special Forces are using water boarding technique
as training method, so they can resist if they are in a situation. Which towards the end of the piece, apparently
it seems that Al Qaeda were schooled not only to lie but also resist the
tortures, because even if they were telling the truth about being tortured they
survived it.
Hi Kimberly and thank you for your post! That is an unfortunate experience you encountered as a child. I have been through a similar situation and can clearly recall the sheer panic and terror I felt. The emotional aspect definitely needs attention to this issue. It is easy for people to forget that emotional scarring can be just as bad, if not worse, than the physical aspect. I can only imagine what a few of my friends feel when dealing with symptoms of P.T.S.D. as a result of participating in the war. See you in class!
ReplyDeleteI was thinking the same thing about his age and lungs! Also I would have to defiantly agree with you on the mental, emotional and physical damage, how could people not consider that torcher when there are consequences and side effects such as that!
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