Water boarding

Water boarding is a form of torture which was used by our own government up until very recently. The people are in favor of it staying legal like to play it down to make it sound mild. Some of the arguments that these people make are: that it’s not torture because the subject doesn’t want to die after being subjected to it they only feel like they almost died. Another argument is that it is just simulated drowning that there really isn’t any physical harm being done. Finally the most ridiculous argument is that what we are doing with water boarding can’t compare to what they are doing over in Iraq to our soldiers, they cut our heads off and we just splash some water on their faces.
Not one of these arguments holds any water they are full of holes. Back to the first argument just because the person subjected to water boarding doesn’t want to die after having undergone it does not make water boarding and less tame the point is that they felt as though they were about to die and that is cruel and unusual. As for it being simulated drowning that is completely false it isn’t simulated it is drowning only slow and deliberate drowning. Finally simply because our enemies do something like cutting our troops heads off does that mean that we should lower ourselves to using torture? I think not.
Water boarding is a very simple torture and there are a few ways that it can be done. The subject is laid face up on the table sometimes with the table slanted so that their head is lower than the rest of their body in order to facilitate the water in going up the subject’s nose. The subject is bound tightly in order for them to feel completely helpless. In most of the procedures a towel or cloth is placed over the face, which is then slowly drenched in the nose and mouth area with water. This causes them to breath in a substantial amount of water with each panicked breath that they take. Other times a piece of seran wrap is placed over the subject’s mouth and then water is poured directly into the subject’s nose. Most people don’t last longer than fifteen seconds to a minute and a half at the most. Everyone who has had it demonstrated to them with themselves as the subject have concluded that it is indeed torture. A great example would be Christopher Hitchens a writer for Vanity Fair magazine he volunteered to have it performed on him and there is a video of it on YouTube. In his testimonial Hitchens describes the experience very vividly saying that trying to hold his breath didn’t help and then once he took a breath he was done.
After watching Christopher Hitchens’ demonstration of water boarding I can say with great confidence that water boarding is torture. Water boarding is horrible and it is scary that there are people who have to undergo this for endless hours. Like Christopher Hitchens says in the video what happens if you don’t have anything to tell them?


Works Cited
Surowidjojo, Arya. “Watch Christopher Hitchens get Water boarded(Vanity Fair).” Vanity Fair Magazine. YouTube, 2 July, 2008. Web. 2 Dec. 2009.