Waterboarding, Just water boarding

**jconners** · 05-17-2012

Many US military training courses during the 1960-70s era included a POW compound exercise where individuals were subjected to "hard" and "soft" cell treatment...US military pilots, the 101st Recondo course, etc.

Water torture was part of the "hard cell" treatment given to some or all of the students in each class.

My personal experience involved a medical doctor being present during water torturing...when you pass out or vomit and block the airway, I believe that a doctor is necessary to insure that the person being water tortured is not permanently physically harmed or killed.

I knew that I would be resuscitated during the water torturing during the POW compound training...yet when regaining consciousness there was always a short time frame when I was disoriented and believed that I was indeed drowning and when subjected to water torturing again under those conditions the experience was perceived as life threatening and I struggled under that perception until I was again unconscious.

My personal experiences gained in such training...I would not subject a prisoner to water torture/water boarding...and belief that we have the technology to gain the information needed by means that do not constitute torture...

**Fuchs** · 05-17-2012

That's not so much about technology as it is about skill...

Besides; it's an often forwarded, yet entirely irrelevant argument that the U.S. did this to its own soldiers, too (I know you didn't phrase it as a pro argument):
Boxers voluntarily beat each other up. Voluntarily, and professionally. Do the same without consent and it's a crime. Nobody would ever be stupid enough to attempt to justify having beaten somebody up by pointing at boxing sports, right?