Quote:
Originally posted by sebastian_dangerfield
Not in the least. Where's the physical harm? So the guy gets the shit scared out of him. Caveat fucking emptor. Perhaps he'll think twice before he joins another jihadist movement.
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I can think of numerous things that don't cause lasting physical harm that would probably be more widely considered torture. We could drill teeth. As long as we fill them up, where's the harm? Or we could strategically apply electrical shocks to some of the body's more sensitive areas. As long as there's no lasting harm, what's the big deal?
The point of torture is not to harm the subject, but to produce pain and fear. As someone who almost drowned (my ankle got tangled up in a ski rope and the driver of the boat didn't know I was back there), I can assure you that the feeling of having water forced into your nose and mouth while being unable to breath is not merely uncomfortable, it is incredibly painful, not comparable in any way to simply holding your breath underwater for as long as you can (which is what I believe many of you imagine the feeling to be). The panic it induces is overwhelming. Given my choice, I'd rather have my fingernails pulled or my teeth drilled, and yet people regard these practices as clearly torture. Given the objectives of torture and the reasons for its prohibition, I don't see the "lasting physical harm" distinction.
