Monday, March 02, 2009

Water Boarding Again

Once again water boarding is back in the news. Water boarding was once a normal part of some special military training. In 1979, while serving in the U.S. Navy as a helicopter aircrewman, I experienced water boarding first hand.

Water boarding was a common part of S.E.R.E. School (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape). This school trained special forces and aircrews how to survive if you found yourself behind enemy lines or a prisoner of war.

I wrote about my experience in 2006 (see it HERE). I said then that I did not believe that water boarding should be considered torture. I still do not think it should be listed as torture.

It is not a fun. It is very frightening while experiencing it. A large portion of my group at S.E.R.E. school, myself included, were water boarded and I had many friends who attended the school before and after me who also recieved the same treatment with no damage.

It scares you. You may THINK you are drowning, but if done correctly, you are safe. This treatment is nothing compared to what the enemies of this country do to our servicemen and women.

Muslim terrorists, like the Communist before them, think nothing of slaughtering and torturing innocent human beings. They treat our people as though they are worste than fermine and we are concerned that some of them were water boarded.

Thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of American military personel, have experienced full blown water boarding. S.E.R.E. school can be intense, but actual torture is not part of the the training. Water boarding is rough, but it is not torture.

Coram Deo,
Kenith

6 comments:

GumboFilé said...

methinks thou dost protest too much

Cajun Huguenot said...

How so?

According to my son, who went through S.E.R.E. School last year, they have stopped using it there also.

I am all for the rule of law, and I have many problems with the way president GWB and congress threw the Bill of Rights out the window with the Patriot Act. That scares me. Using water boarding on enemy combatants does not bother me. It hurts no one, and if used in war it can save innocent lives.

Coram Deo,
Kenith

GumboFilé said...

Can you defend it from Holy Scripture?

Cajun Huguenot said...

We both know that the state is given the power of the sword. It has the duty to defend the innocent from murderous thugs like Islamic terrorists.

I would not try to defend torture in such cases, but having undergone waterboarding in a very personal way, and having watched as friends underwent the same treatment, I can say that it is a way to get information while not really harming anyone.

I see nothing in Scripture that would keep me from using it in war.

Later,
Kenith

GumboFilé said...

Now that you and I and our families have been identified as "potential right-wing domestic terrorists", what do you think about the use of waterboarding on our parents, wives and children?

Cajun Huguenot said...

As a veteran a Christian and a paleo-conservative/libertarian, there is no doubt that I am a potential right-wing terrorist and need to be watched :-)

I do still support waterboarding being used on Islamic terrorists. I am opposed to any maltreatment of non-combatants of any form what ever.

I know waterboarding up close and personally and will admit that it is not fun but I will say again "It is also NOT torture."

Beatings, electrical shock, removing fingernails or fingers, etc... (i.e. all things that truly harm the person, is torture) Waterboarding can scare the crap out of you, but it can and is done without harm to the individual. I know this because it was done to me and I saw it done to my comrades at S.E.R.E. School.

Later,
Kenith