Angry British atheist/steadfast-Iraq-War-supporter Christopher Hitchens (that about covers it, right?) is known for his propensity for being just a little bit absolutely and completely certain that he's right at all times. (Evidence: he's still 100% sure that invading Iraq was a good idea.)
So when Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter challenged him to give waterboarding a go -- that's the "aggressive interrogation method" that Hitchens insisted wasn't torture -- how could he refuse?
Turns out -- yep -- it's torture. My favorite passage:
The interrogators would hardly have had time to ask me any questions, and I knew that I would quite readily have agreed to supply any answer. I still feel ashamed when I think about it. Also, in case it’s of interest, I have since woken up trying to push the bedcovers off my face, and if I do anything that makes me short of breath I find myself clawing at the air with a horrible sensation of smothering and claustrophobia. No doubt this will pass. As if detecting my misery and shame, one of my interrogators comfortingly said, “Any time is a long time when you’re breathing water.” I could have hugged him for saying so, and just then I was hit with a ghastly sense of the sadomasochistic dimension that underlies the relationship between the torturer and the tortured. I apply the Abraham Lincoln test for moral casuistry: “If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.” Well, then, if waterboarding does not constitute torture, then there is no such thing as torture.
(Don't forget to watch the video of Hitchens totally being tortured.)
And let's not forget that John McCain, who already is fully aware that waterboarding is torture and totally reprehensible, voted against a ban on its use. Have a happy 4th of July!
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