Via Michelle Malkin’s website I came across these clips from CNN Christine Amanpour’s show which pitted her and another high-brow opponent of waterboarding against former Bush speechwriter, author and proponent of waterboarding, Marc Thiessen. Generally, these types of things go bad for the waterboarding proponents because they don’t stick to the core logic behind laws of war and enemy combatants, such as:
* Geneva Conventions weren’t designed to “protect soldiers” but to give them incentives to follow the laws of war.
* What the CIA calls waterboarding isn’t the same thing as or as dangerous as or as barbaric as Khmer Rouge waterboarding or what other governments have done.
* If waterboarding is torture than we’re apparently torturing thousands of U.S. servicemen and women who go through SERE (Survive, Evade, Resist, Extract) training.
Thiessen sticks to all these points and in short kicks the arse of his detractors. His point that the waterboarding actually allows Islamic extremists to spill their guts without betraying their service to Allah is fascinating.
Because he did so well, I doubt if CNN will ever have Thiessen back on.