Tuesday, July 15, 2008

To torture...or not to torture, that seems to be the question

I recently watch the BBC show Newsnight with Jeremy Paxman, where they had a segment with a reporter for Vanity Fair magazine, who had decided to investigate waterboarding by going through the experience himself. He had his head covered with a bag bag, a towel placed over his face, and a jug of water was poured onto his mouth and nose. He was given two safety measures. The first was a code word, "red," and the second was two metal objects for him to hold in his hands that he could drop as soon as he felt like he couldn't take it anymore. He did it twice, dropping the metal thing after about 12 seconds, and the second time after about 19 seconds. It didn't look fun. In his comments to Mr. Paxman on the practice, he said it wasn't really so much simulating being drowned, as actually being drowned. His comments would lead most people to come to the conclusion that waterboarding is a form of torture.

Now, moving on the the presidential election, and the candidates, we come to John McCain, himself a victim of torture (as we all know, because no one will let us forget it), declaring that he is against torture, but he supports waterboarding because it is not torture. As someone who has been tortured, this seems hypocritical.

But then, as I see it, if a behavior or practice causes one to question whether or not it is torture, it is best to assume it is not a morally acceptable action in cases such as those involving the government, not that they would listen to my opinion.

Furthermore, the Supreme Court has decided that those detained in Guantanamo Bay will now have access to legal representation being derided by many leading republicans just astounds me, especially the harsh language they used to deride the decision. Surely all this will do is release people that are wrongly being held. Those that are guilty of whatever it is that warrants the punishment of being detained in Guantanamo Bay, whatever that is (it never seems to be made clear) will remain there. This seems more in line with the ideals of the US and the Constitution then holding people for indetermined amounts of time on no particular charge without letting them notify their families, things that human rights groups such as Amnesty International have reported as occurring.

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