Who Would Jesus Waterboard?

It sounds like a recreational activity. And, for a sadist or a sociopath, maybe it is. But this is what it looks like. Take a good look, because this is what we do now. And not everyone we do it to is a terrorist.

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And if that’s not entertaining enough, you can get a taste of what many Americans apparently have a taste for via Channel 4’s Guantanamo Guidebook documentary. And remember that much is left out of what you’re seeing here, as there are some approved methods of torture that the BBC couldn’t justify doing to volunteers, and that might even have been illegal for the facilitators of the exercise to do to voluntary inmates. But it’s what we’ve done and are doing to people who aren’t involved in terrorism or with terrorists.

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I’ve blogged about extraordinary rendition before. To the point that I’m no longer even sure what can be said about that hasn’t already been said. Nor am I sure anymore that anything that’s said about it makes a damn bit of difference beyond merely documenting the atrocities for anyone who may bother to seek out the information. The reality is that it happens, and it will continue to happen; in our names, on our dime. It doesn’t even appear to matter whether a majority back the use of torture or not.

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Do we even want to rectify it? We’ve become a country where presidential candidates support waterboarding by domestic police forces and laugh at the tasering of citizens who take the first amendment a little too seriously. And they do so because they know it will get them votes, and in significant numbers. What’s depicted above is a part of who we are. Waterboarding is now as American as baseball, mom, and apple pie, because enough of us want it that way.

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