essay #2

Geoffrey Laksmana
Prof. Brown
Eng. 1B
03/25/2013
Believe me, it’s the right thing to do
Water boarding. A rigorous, torture method that is meant to bring the weakness out of the most strongest people. No matter how strong you are mentally or physically, this method of torture is meant to and will make you break, spill out the spoils that lurk within the secret hard drives of your brain. Using just simple, primitive house tools that include a plank for you to lay down upon, a couple buckets of water, some straps to tie you down, and last but not least, a towel to help the process of making you suffocate and drown with ease. Once strapped down with your face covered in the deadly towel, you really have no way out. Either you drown, or you give up the goods.
In Christopher Hitchen’s essay “ Believe me, its torture”, Hitchens argues that water boarding is torturous and that it does not have a reliable, direct outcome of what its meant to do. Willing to strap himself down to be water boarded to understand what it feels like, Hitchen’s quickly gives up as he feels as if he is asphyxiated by the splashes of water. He later concludes that waterboarding is not justified due to examples of some cases resulting in unreliable data. Hitchen’s also claims that not only did he feel mass discomfort from being water boarded, but that he felt a small tingle of a child hood trauma that he once encountered. Now although Hitchen’s makes an unarguable claim that water boarding is indeed torture, what can we constitute as a torture method? What other method can we use that would be not only a fast and quick method, but also at the most least painful way?
I believe we can all agree that the feeling of being drowned is more of a psychological inflicting pain than a physical feeling. Maybe you haven’t felt the feeling of being drowned before, but if you have ever held your breath underwater for an uncomfortable amount of time, you understand that it is not painful, but more of a scare tactic that is playing in your head. When your body does not receive oxygen for a certain time frame, it will do anything in its power to be able to take a small, pathetic gulp of air. Doing anything such as, maybe telling the men water boarding you the information that they need in order for them to stop pouring water down your lungs.
Hitchen’s claims that this method of torture is unreliable, gives too much false information from the victim just so they can be able to take a break. If that is the case, what other techniques can we use in order to extract information effectively? Assuming that a terrorist is on the receiving end of the water boarding method, what makes you think that he will give reliable information by just being interrogated? Put yourself in the shoes of people that are in that situation. If you were to be interrogated rather than to be water boarded, you would be able to hold your lie so much longer than it would take where opposed to physical action being taken.
Torture however is torture. It is inhumane, and viewed upon to society as barbaric. But to be put into that barbaric state of mind, you must be desperate. For the united states to be so barbaric that they would have to torture people for information, they are desperate to find information that would help them stop terrorism from happening. With that being said, how can you consider or care about the life and well being of one person, when maybe two or more are at risk due to some diabolical plans?

Regarding the pain of others

Why does society blind itself from the death and destruction of pictures?

Why does the military only take journalists on only a select few missions?

Wouldnt these pictures shed new light to the public?


One of the things that I would first like to address after reading this essay, is that i believe  the public does not want to see things that are either true, or not pleasurable to the eye. With that being said, it is understandable to know why the general american public feels as if they have little control in what the government does and the decisions that impact us on a daily basis. Like the essay stated, only a few select reporters were sent in on certain missions during the afghanistan war. My thought on that statement is that the military wants to keep its image of being " the best you can be " or the " Be a hero" face. With the military controlling the press in what pictures can be taken, or what missions where they can tag along, I truly believe that they only want to make sure that the public sees what they want to see. Imagine a reporter filming, taking pictures of a heavy firefight that shows the death of a whole squad, or a bomb that instantly vaporized the enemy in full camera view. Sure the pictures could be biased, but neither truly show that were either losing or winning a war. It shows that war isn't for that eighteen year old fresh out of high school looking for an adventure where they can join this so called "elite club". With that being said, pictures and videos showing deaths would totally backfire on the military's advertising and recruitment campaign.

Not only are pictures of people being killed or are already killed not pleasant to view, but they stir up certain emotions that build by seeing them. Although not many newspapers or magazines show death at an upclose and personal level, the internet does. Remember that statement by the Al-Queda stating that they would behead captured infidels? Well they did. Not only did they behead them, they taped it for the whole world to see. Upon viewing the videos online, it made me feel not only sick, but scared of what the enemy was capable of. Sure they didn't have a massive bomb that would level a city, or any of the latest war technology, but just a chainsaw, the same one you would use to cut down a tree. By them releasing the video, it actually made me feel scared of what they are willing to do in order for us to meet their demands. Now if those pictures were to be published on the LA times rather than just some text claiming that so and so was beheaded, there would definitely be more social unrest that would intrude on what plans the white house has already made. whether good or bad for them, the picture of that one death, could set off, or scare a whole nation.