Straight Dope Message Board – I waterboard!
As seen on Vowe’s pages here’s an incredibly brave person trying, the hard way, to decide for himself whether waterboarding is a torture technique. The post is incredibly powerful, and I can well recommend a read. My opinion is that it is an obscenity against humanity that such a technique is used by a supposedly civilised nation. The defense that their enemies do worse is weak. As Nietzche said “be careful when you fight monsters, lest you become what you fight” (err, I think that is a bit of a misquote there). Nobody can engage in such behaviour without being tainted. Did Torquemada add to Spain’s history? Going back to the post what enhances the poster’s credibility is that it appears that he’s actually a fairly strong Republican. Our world absolutely needs people like this. Ones that are willing to investigate issues and form opinions based on their research, and not to blindly follow the “accepted” views of their political affiliates. In fact I suppose that is true for all areas, but unfortunately in the areas of politics (and religion as a more extreme case) this is so rarely the case.