This is my Final Report for ethics (Worst teacher in the world)
Just to make it clear, Waterboarding had been classified as torture and is not being practiced anymore. This report is simple on if we were still debating on continuing waterboarding or not.
1) My report is on the issue of waterboarding. Waterboarding has been a very controversial issue in the United States for the past decade or so. My question is; is waterboarding torture, and is it OK to do? Waterboarding is a form of “Enhanced Interrogation Techniques”. The United States military uses waterboarding to interrogate certain detainees. What is water boarding. Water boarding is when “The head is tilted back and water is poured into the upturned mouth or nose. Eventually the subject cannot exhale more air or cough out more water, the lungs are collapsed, and the sinuses and trachea are filled with water. The subject is drowned from the inside, filling with water from the head down. The chest and lungs are kept higher than the head so that coughing draws water up and into the lungs while avoiding total suffocation.” (waterboarding.org) Is waterboarding ok to do? A lot of arguments about waterboarding have been around the fact of, if it is torture or not. The definition of torture:
Torture:
Noun
1. The act of inflicting excruciating pain, as punishment or revenge, as a means of getting a confession or information, or for sheer cruelty.
2. A method of inflicting such pain.
3. Often, tortures. The pain or suffering caused or undergone.
4. Extreme anguish of body or mind; agony.
5. A cause of severe pain or anguish.
(
www.dictionary.com)
Even though waterboarding doesn’t to put you in any physically danger, it does put you in the position that you are drowning, which can cause “extreme anguish of the mind”. In an interview between John Yoo, former Justice Department lawyer, and Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, Roth said “Waterboarding is basically mock execution by drowning,” he said. “Mock executions are paradigmatic torture” This is a very good argument. Waterboarding does simulate drowning. “Lets say you were trying to design the optimal form of torture without regard for conscience, morality, humanity, law, and international obligation. Here are the features you would look for:
1. Maximize physical discomfort
2. Maximize psychological discomfort
3. Minimize lasting physical damage
4. Minimize physical evidence of trauma
5. Maximize your future options
6. Minimize recovery time”
(
www.waterboarding.org)
According to this quote from waterboarding.org, waterboarding falls under all of these categories.
“Many CIA officials see water boarding as a poor interrogation method because it scares the prisoner so much you can’t trust anything he tells you” (science.howstuffworks.com) Waterboarding causes psychological damage too. When Augusto Pincochet was dictator of Chile he used waterboarding on many Chileans. They called waterboarding “submarine” were they would dunk you continuously in water until you were almost drowning. “A 2007 study in the International Review of the Red Cross found that “the acute suffering produced during the immediate infliction of the submarino is suspended by the often unbearable fear of repeating the experience. In the aftermath, it may lead to horrific memories that persist in the form of recurrent ‘drowning nightmares.’”” (time.com) One Chilean said “Even today I wake up because of having nightmares of dying from drowning.” But in the interview posted on cbsnews.com between Yoo and Roth, Yoo supported his argument that waterboarding was not torture. He said “I don’t think it was torture because all the information we had about the effects of waterboarding on people – we’re talking mostly about something like 20,000 American soldiers and officials – show that there was no harm from it, our military would not torture its own soldiers.” He later went on to say “If that information had been different, if we had found that when waterboarding was used of our troops and officials, that it was causing harm, then I wouldn’t have permitted it to be used,” As I can see, waterboarding it considered torture, but my real question is, is it right to do? Torture should not be used by the United States, though they argue against that waterboarding is not torture by saying they did it to soldiers in the military. Even though they use it on soldiers, that still doesn’t classify it as “not torture” According to a CIA Veteran, who was involved in the waterboarding of Khalid Sheik Mohammed, said in an interview that KSM “didn’t resist”. Another CIA official said in an interview “KDM lasted the longest under waterboarding, about a minute and a half, but once he broke, it never had to be used again.”
2) Possible solutions to waterboarding:
“Using other techniques like
• Direct Approach
• Incentive Approach
• Emotional Approach
• Emotional Love Approach
• Emotional Hate Approach
• Increased Fear Up Approach
• Fear Up (Harsh)
• Fear Up (Mild)
• Decreased Fear Down Approach
• Pride and Ego Approach
• Pride and Ego Up Approach
• Pride and Ego Down Approach
• Futility Technique Approach
• “We all know” Approach
• “Establish your identity” Approach
• Repetition Approach
• File and Dossier Approach
• “Mutt and Jeff” (“Friend and Foe”) Approach
• Rapid Fire Approach
• Silence Approach”
(globalsecurity.org)
3) Stakeholders:
• Waterboarding subject
• Soldiers engaging in the act of waterboarding
• Their commanding officer
• The military itself
• The president
• The country
This is not yet completed
