Waterboarding in the past

Was a terrible torture. Via Cory Doctorow of Boing Boing:

A letter by A. F. Miller, of the 32nd Volunteer Infantry Regiment, published in the Omaha World-Herald in May, 1900, told of how Miller’s unit uncovered hidden weapons by subjecting a prisoner to what he and others called the “water cure.” “Now, this is the way we give them the water cure,” he explained. “Lay them on their backs, a man standing on each hand and each foot, then put a round stick in the mouth and pour a pail of water in the mouth and nose, and if they don’t give up pour in another pail. They swell up like toads. I’ll tell you it is a terrible torture.”

We need to keep the YouTubed videos of the various Republicans getting themselves into pretzeled contortions of semantics and logic while explaining how waterboarding is only like getting water up your nose or taking a shower or going swimming and then show them repeatedly whenever they run for reelection. Or when we have a war crimes tribunal at the Hague.

As Cory points out, we gave the death penalty to the Japanese soldiers who used waterboarding on our prisoners of war. Changing the title of the prisoners of war to illegal combatants doesn't change the fact waterboarding is torture and has been considered so since the middle ages. It's just another Rovian word game.