Take a 2x4 attach it the face of a restrained prisoner. Take a large amount of water and pour down the board so it hits the face and mouth of a the tortured person. At first they drink, no problem, but the stomach only holds a couple litres of water, so they gasp. Of course there's still water flowing into their face and they pull it into their lungs. Within a minute or two the person feels like they are drowning and browns out. If you keep the water flowing down the board, they will die, but of course that doesn't help the torturer so when they guy passes out, you stop the water, revive and repeat.
We do this.
Now you wanna know how I know it's torture? The 17th century Dutch thought it was torture. You know how I really know it's torture? Mastheading and keel-hauling were considered "lesser tortures".
Mastheading -- take a forty foot length of rope and run it under the prisoners arms and tie it off behind his head. Haul the prisoner up to a spar 50 feet off the deck, tie off the other end of the rope, and push the prisoner off the spar so he free falls to a couple of feet from deck at which point the rope jerks his shoulders against his ears and dislocates both of his shoulders (or possibly breaks his spine if the shoulders hold for some reason).
Keel Hauling -- take a long piece of rope, run it under the width of the ship. Tie the prisoner to the port side of the rope. Get 6 or 8 seaman on the starboard side even with the prisoner. Push prisoner overboard and have seaman heave. The prisoner gets pulled underwater, dragged along the bottom of a hobnailed keel (little nails stick out all over and rip the prisoners flesh on the way by), and haul the prisoner up the other side. Repeat two more times.
See waterboarding was considered worse than those by the Dutch, but we do that. Hell even the 17th century Dutch knew this was torture. Dutch law would allow for torture, but not a confessions compelled by torture. They knew someone would say /anything/ to get that torture to stop so they would not accept a confession obtained in such a way. 500 years ago people knew that this was a useless way to extract information, and we still use it.
Brilliant.
But, but, but mcsey
"Is our Congress today in more danger than were their predecessors when the British army was marching on the Capitol? Is the world more dangerous than when we faced an ideological enemy with tens of thousands of missiles poised to be launched against us and annihilate our country at a moment's notice? Is America in more danger now than when we faced worldwide fascism on the march -- when our fathers fought and won two World Wars simultaneously? (ed: huh, you mean a two front war)
"It is simply an insult to those who came before us and sacrificed so much on our behalf to imply that we have more to be fearful of than they. Yet they faithfully protected our freedoms and now it is up to us to do the same."
--Al Gore
No its not. Get over your fear. It's killing your mind. Let us not aspire to live. Let us not aspire to be great and powerful. Let us aspire to be good -- the rest will follow.
Stop supporting torture and its progenitors. We are better than that.
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