Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Duh, it's torture
Christopher Hitchens, an outspoken supporter of the Iraq war and the administration's "interrogation techniques" in Guantanamo, has changed his mind. After having subjected himself to waterboarding, he's decided it is torture after all.
Mr. Hitchens took up the challenge posed by some of his readers that if he really thought waterboarding wasn't so bad, he should go through it himself. Apparently, Mr. Hitchens was confident he would be able to withstand it. He wasn't. Not only did he "last less than ten seconds," but he is suffering from ongoing effects -- bad dreams and panic attacks whenever he feels breathless -- that are reminiscent of post-traumatic stress syndrome. This is despite the fact that he was told precisely what would happen during the procedure and was given codes words and physical signals to shout and make when he'd had enough.
How much worse would it be for men who had no idea what was coming, who had no escape route?
One can't help but wonder if a movie diet filled with super human heroes who take abuse as though it were nothing -- James Bond stoically withstanding Korean torture, Jason Bourne (hmmm note the coinciding initials!) running and fighting after being subjected to beatings that would leave most of us brain damaged -- hasn't convinced the american public that we are invincible, or at least that humans can take far more than we really can.
Anyway, thank god one person has woken up, though, apparently with devastating results. Let's hope his "epiphany" will wake some others up too.
to read the full account : http://www.cbc.ca/arts/media/story/2008/07/08/waterboarding-hitchens.html ¶ 10:40 AM
Mr. Hitchens took up the challenge posed by some of his readers that if he really thought waterboarding wasn't so bad, he should go through it himself. Apparently, Mr. Hitchens was confident he would be able to withstand it. He wasn't. Not only did he "last less than ten seconds," but he is suffering from ongoing effects -- bad dreams and panic attacks whenever he feels breathless -- that are reminiscent of post-traumatic stress syndrome. This is despite the fact that he was told precisely what would happen during the procedure and was given codes words and physical signals to shout and make when he'd had enough.
How much worse would it be for men who had no idea what was coming, who had no escape route?
One can't help but wonder if a movie diet filled with super human heroes who take abuse as though it were nothing -- James Bond stoically withstanding Korean torture, Jason Bourne (hmmm note the coinciding initials!) running and fighting after being subjected to beatings that would leave most of us brain damaged -- hasn't convinced the american public that we are invincible, or at least that humans can take far more than we really can.
Anyway, thank god one person has woken up, though, apparently with devastating results. Let's hope his "epiphany" will wake some others up too.
to read the full account : http://www.cbc.ca/arts/media/story/2008/07/08/waterboarding-hitchens.html ¶ 10:40 AM
