Om visse punditokraters særlige forhold til tortur

Moralsk forfald plus indavlet ideologi, så får vi at se: Westy fra Punditokraterne spiller smart med Stougaards uddrag fra Giulianis svar på om vandbrætning er tortur. Giuliani var ikke helt sikker, det er sikkert mange forskellige måder at drukne folk på skrømt på, man kan jo aldrig vide om de venstredrejede medier har forvansket teknikken. På dette punkt er han på linie med Bush's justitsministerkandidat.

En Malcolm Nance fra Small Wars Journal er ikke i tvivl. Han har over 20 års erfaring med efterretningsarbejde og terrorbekæmpelse. Jeg lader ham få ordet.

1. Waterboarding is a torture technique. Period. There is no way to gloss over it or sugarcoat it. It has no justification outside of its limited role as a training demonstrator. Our service members have to learn that the will to survive requires them accept and understand that they may be subjected to torture, but that America is better than its enemies and it is one’s duty to trust in your nation and God, endure the hardships and return home with honor.

2. Waterboarding is not a simulation. Unless you have been strapped down to the board, have endured the agonizing feeling of the water overpowering your gag reflex, and then feel your throat open and allow pint after pint of water to involuntarily fill your lungs, you will not know the meaning of the word.

Waterboarding is a controlled drowning that, in the American model, occurs under the watch of a doctor, a psychologist, an interrogator and a trained strap-in/strap-out team. It does not simulate drowning, as the lungs are actually filling with water. There is no way to simulate that. The victim is drowning. How much the victim is to drown depends on the desired result (in the form of answers to questions shouted into the victim’s face) and the obstinacy of the subject. A team doctor watches the quantity of water that is ingested and for the physiological signs which show when the drowning effect goes from painful psychological experience, to horrific suffocating punishment to the final death spiral.

Waterboarding is slow motion suffocation with enough time to contemplate the inevitability of black out and expiration –usually the person goes into hysterics on the board. For the uninitiated, it is horrifying to watch and if it goes wrong, it can lead straight to terminal hypoxia. When done right it is controlled death. Its lack of physical scarring allows the victim to recover and be threaten with its use again and again.

Resten er her. Spørgsmålet er så om Westy ville lege mediekritiker, eller om han selv ikke er sikker på om vandbrætning er tortur. Nok det første. Håber jeg da. Gad vidst, om det var sådan de Moskva-tro kommunister opførte sig under Ungarn i 1956?