Waterboarding and caterpillars
I've had it up to my eyeballs with the torture debate. Can it actually be that the Obama administration would seriously consider prosecuting Bush administration officials over this? I am astounded at the mere thought of it. The magnitude of the implications are mind boggling. The loss of confidence that would permeate the lower echelons of our intelligence community, both civilian and military, defy anything we might have seen previously. The loss of leadership because the leaders themselves are in jeopardy of being constantly second-guessed by politicians and others who would harbor a grudge (real or perceived) could cripple the entire community. The result would be to turn the higher levels of our nation's intelligence gathering arm into an ineffective and inefficient bunch of waffling beaurocrats. Those who depend on their leadership would be left twisting in the wind. The net effect would be an almost total loss of an effective intel operation which in turn would leave our country virtually defenseless and I mean that quite literally. And for what? Revenge? I can think of no other motivation than obsession with revenge against all things Bush/Cheney, Republican, Conservative, traditional, and religious – not necessarily in that order.
If the current administration believes it can do the job of safeguarding our country against determined terrorists by reasoning with them – so be it. Have at it. I myself have no confidence in that method. Neither do I believe we should wage unrestrained terror of our own under the guise of “interrogation”. But to punish those who attempted to do what they believed best with the tools they had at hand would be tantamount to declaring all current and future government personnel liable for anything they said, did not say, wrote or did not write, did or did not do depending on the perception of someone in a future administration. Now, some have opined that they would simply be meting out “justice” to those who deserve it but I say they are playing a dangerous game of brinkmanship with our democracy.
As for the poor guys, who through no fault of their own, planted massive roadside explosive devices, exploded brutal killing devices in public areas, beheaded and brutally murdered innocent men, women, and children – well, heck almighty let’s make sure they aren’t hurt. While we’re at it lets give them citizenship, social security benefits, and ship ‘em back where they can do it all over again! As one blog puts it “Abu Zubaydah: Waterboarded 83 Times for 10 Pieces of Intelligence” – are these people really serious or seriously simple? Make no mistake – all around the globe men and women like Zubaydah are trying their damndest to kill people – people who don’t agree with them, people who don’t even know about them but who will serve as warning sacrifices to the first group and so on. Will we just stand by and let it happen? I surely hope not. Yes, we need checks and balances, yes we need to restrain some who, with the authority given them by their government would become thugs themselves but no we do not by any means need to stop defending ourselves against merciless, mindless killers. I can recall early in my Navy career having an “understanding” that we (meaning me and my fellow military members) would not stoop to the same methods that our enemies were using against us. That didn’t mean it never happened but it did mean that it was not acceptable. From the start I will state categorically that I do not believe the United States should use “torture” as a means of obtaining information.
I’ve had the pleasure of being waterboarded. Early in my navy career (20 years old at the time) I accepted orders to the U.S. Naval headquarters in what was then Saigon, Republic of Vietnam. Only after I had accepted those orders did I find that my transfer would be preceded by a short training course in Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape at the Counterinsurgency Training School at Little Creek Amphibious Base, Norfolk, VA. I was told that because I had access to highly classified information it would be necessary for me to learn a bit about how our enemies might try to extract some of that information from me. I had no idea what I was in for.
Without going into all the details (which could consume pages) I will say that we were subjected to various interrogation techniques – increasing in intensity over a period of 24 hours – that included waterboarding; being locked in a small wooden box out in the hot sun and then having someone tell me (through the box) that the Red Cross had informed them that my father had died; later they threw a snake into that dark box with me; being slapped in the face and struck on the chest; being thrown against a wall; being made to stand and watch as an “enemy” officer threatened to kill one of our group with a pistol while demanding that we stop resisting questioning. All the while our man, the senior officer in the group, shouted for us to “Stand Fast” and give “name, rank, and serial number only”. Prior to being put through this final phase of our training we underwent a week of classroom and firing range instruction before being put out into an area of a Virginia Army base where were used our training to survive and evade capture by the enemy. By the time we were eventually “captured” we were exhausted, hungry, and susceptible to the delusion that this was “real”. So when we were marched into the POW camp it felt real in almost every sense of the word. We didn’t know it but that standoff – the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) Officer with his pistol to the head of the Lieutenant – was to be the last event in our training. But at that moment in time it seemed so real that we were frozen in our places by the Lieutenants command to “stand fast” and very many of us, cold, wet, starving, bruised, and dejected were convinced that man was going to be shot in the head right in front of us. Just as the tension had become completely unbearable the NVA “Officer” lowered his pistol, turned toward the guard tower that faced us just outside the barbed wire fence, and saluted as the American flag was unfurled on the tower wall and the Star Spangled Banner began playing over the camp loudspeakers. We all stayed at attention, we all obeyed the command “hand salute” but there was not a single man in the formation that wasn’t sobbing tears of sheer relief. It was quite literally like being rescued at the last moment.
Is waterboarding torture? Is it torture in the same sense that being locked in the box was torture? As having the snake thrown in with me? Being told my father was dead? As slapping me in the face and the various other physical and psychological techniques used against us at SERE School?
You get the picture. What constitutes torture and what constitutes “aggressive interrogation”? It isn’t a simple question and there are no easy answers. As far as I’m concerned there is only one answer – We are the United States of America – we don’t stoop to the methods of the thugs and totalitarian dictators. We must be better than that or we will be no better than thugs and totalitarian dictators but we have a right to defend ourselves against the likes of Khalid Sheik Mohammed et al. If we can stick to that we will come out on top.
Oh, by the way, the Sheik, his buddies and I all survived and without permanent injury. I recall clearly that I could not get my shoe on one foot because it was swollen and my chest was simply one great mass of bruise – but I was proud of myself that I had come through the entire POW phase having given up nothing more than my name, rank, and serial number. Thank God I was never subjected to the caterpillar – no telling what I’d have told them!