Christopher Hitchens is Waterboarded

[Dan.Linehan]

Christopher Hitchens gets Waterboarded, on video.

Video: On the Waterboard


Then writes an article called,

Believe Me, It's Torture


As if there was ever a question. Waterboarding has always been recognized as torture, even since before WWII. The Untied States has even prosecuted others for war crimes when they used waterboarding.

I still feel ashamed when I think about it. Also, in case it’s of interest, I have since woken up trying to push the bedcovers off my face, and if I do anything that makes me short of breath I find myself clawing at the air with a horrible sensation of smothering and claustrophobia. No doubt this will pass. As if detecting my misery and shame, one of my interrogators comfortingly said, "Any time is a long time when you’re breathing water." I could have hugged him for saying so, and just then I was hit with a ghastly sense of the sadomasochistic dimension that underlies the relationship between the torturer and the tortured. I apply the Abraham Lincoln test for moral casuistry: "If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong." Well, then, if waterboarding does not constitute torture, then there is no such thing as torture.

[{aspiring_to_clarity}]

Originally Posted by Dan.Linehan

The Untied States has even prosecuted others for war crimes when they used waterboarding.

That's different, Dan, we're the good guys.