Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Hitchens gets waterboarded

“If waterboarding does not constitute torture, then there is no such thing as torture.”


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

You gotta' admire Hitchens for pulling this stunt - took guts & a touch of stupidity.

If you remember, when Michael Mukasey was being confirmed, he claimed to be uncertain as to whether waterboarding was torture (the son-of-a-bitch), but he was ready to say anything and nothing to get the job.

At the time, I kept wondering why some Congressman didn't suggest the CIA give him a personal demonstration - his muddled opinion would have been drastically clarified. A man of principle, at least, would have withdrawn his nomination until he had clarified the matter.

Aaron said...

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/08/hitchens200808

Here's the vanity fair article. Its good. Hitchens gives a balanced analysis of both sides of the equation.

There is a huge difference between knowing that you are going to be safe and not being sure whether you are going to be killed at any given moment which Hitchens cannot elucidate. How could anything be more terrifying?

Point is, if this is not illegal, then we can expect the enemy to do it to our prisoners as well. The other point is- does it actually work to get accurate information?

Anonymous said...

your'e right; the enemy doesn't waterboard us. They make graphic videos of masked jihad "warriors" repeatedly hacking the heads off of western civilians and publicly mutilating the bodies of our dead.
I guess putting water up someone's nose for information to save lives is really an outrage compared to how they treat us, huh?

Anonymous said...

Clueless writes: //guess putting water up someone's nose for information to save lives is really an outrage //

It's torture, Mike. If you don't want our troops being tortured, or if you want to reduce the odds, *you have to set an example*.

Thank about that before you respond. Give it a few days to sink in.

Aaron said...

Mike, you are a great Amerikan.