Waterboarding Experiment

About a year back now, one of our regular commenters asked us to honestly consider whether waterboarding was torture, and thus morally indefensible, or was simply a pressuring technique that was safe and useful for interrogating terrorists. You may recall Waterboarding is a technique use in Guantanamo Bay, among other places, where the subject is exposed to a stream of water which fools the body into thinking it is drowning, without actually stopping the airflow or threatening life or limb. John McCain has been unapologetic in calling it torture, while other high political officials see it as more like locking a prisoner in solitary confinement - difficult for the subject but ultimately humane.

At the time, we had some discussion and overall I think there was no resolution - it was simply beyond the experience of any Mod-Bloggers. Most of us have never been arrested, much less exposed to pressure techniques or torture. Now, however, The Straight Dope has up a posting from one of its members who has exposed himself voluntarily to two common waterboarding techniques under controlled conditions to see what happened. The verdict? Torture, pure and simple.

It seems that there is a point that is hardwired in us. When we draw water into our respiratory tract to this point we are no longer in control. All hell breaks loose. Instinct tells us we are dying.

I have never been more panicked in my whole life. Once your lungs are empty and collapsed and they start to draw fluid it is simply all over. You [b]know[b] you are dead and it's too late. Involuntary and total panic.

There is absolutely nothing you can do about it. It would be like telling you not to blink while I stuck a hot needle in your eye.

At the time my lungs emptied and I began to draw water, I would have sold my children to escape. There was no choice, or chance, and willpower was not involved.

I never felt anything like it, and this was self-inflicted with a watering can, where I was in total control and never in any danger.

And I understood.

Waterboarding gets you to the point where you draw water up your respiratory tract triggering the drowning reflex. Once that happens, it's all over. No question.

Normally, I would be tempted to dismiss this as unproven and likely written by a partisan looking to make a point. But as I read through it, it really comes across as someone who tried it with no preconceptions - an idiot Mythbusters fan who thought it would be fun to prove it for himself. And I must say, he has just about convinced me that waterboarding is torture and morally indefensible.