Having experienced several styles of torture “up close and personal” during U.S. Air Force SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape) training during the Vietnam era, I have profound reservations regarding our president’s advocacy and approval of waterboarding and other physical tortures during interrogation.
In its historic usage, “the water cure,” as it has sometimes been known, is a gruesome, uncivilized information extraction method. For a detailed description of its horrors, see “Flags of Our Fathers” author James Bradley’s eye-opening work, “The Imperial Cruise.” For a classic examination of other torture techniques, I highly recommend Nobel Laureate Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s monumental “The Gulag Archipelago.”
Perhaps a cooler head will eventually prevail, as incoming Secretary of Defense Gen. James Mattis appears disinclined to use torture. Then again, he serves at the pleasure of the president.
David Carpentier
Camano Island
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
