Mr. Mitra responds

I greatly appreciate your comments, Mr. Barbata; however, I am disappointed that you ultimately refused to take a stance. While your commentary was very insightful, and your personal anecdote about becoming a Navy SEAL added much credibility to your opinions, I still fail to see “the salient point.” It seems to me that you’re using some sort of relativist argument; since the feeling of waterboarding is perceived differently by different people, it must be the case that waterboarding cannot inherently be torture or otherwise. However, this sort of reasoning can apply to almost anything; anorexic individuals may think eating a donut is torture, while fashion-crazed teenagers might consider wearing last year’s jeans an “unbearable” experience. Does that mean we will never really know whether or not eating a donut or wearing fashionably questionable jeans is torture? Would we be wrong to say such things are not lawfully torture? Using your reasoning, anything can become everything. The fact of the matter is, torture itself is an absolute concept. That’s why there exists a legal definition, and that’s why there exists a debate; if torture did not have a definite existence, we wouldn’t know how to gauge the nature of waterboarding. Try measuring your height with a ruler that changed size every two seconds, or your weight with a scale while the gravitational force fluctuated. By arguing that waterboarding could never be absolutely considered torture simply because torture itself is subjective, you’re basically saying nothing and everything can simultaneously become torture. You’re basically saying that torture doesn’t exist. Although I certainly agree that different people can react differently to waterboarding, I don’t buy that this occurrence alone makes it impossible for us to decide whether or not waterboarding is torture. For reasons already elaborated upon in the very article you read, I feel as if waterboarding cannot legally be considered torture, as long as the technique is performed correctly by trained professionals.

This leads me to my second point: torture is wrong, no matter what. The reason I support waterboarding is because it’s not torture; the “ticking time bomb” scenario plays no role in the matter. This is the very scenario you used in your closing sentences, where you painted a rather dramatic scene and made a convincing case for waterboarding as a last resort. While I would certainly have waterboarded the terrorist in that case, I hope you know that this is because I support waterboarding (of illegal enemy combatants) no matter what, regardless of the circumstances. Your scenario almost suggests that waterboarding actually is torture, and the only reason one should support the measure is if he or she were given no other feasible options.

Lastly, your admittance that individuals, with much dedication and training, can develop a certain “immunity” to the techninique is the greatest indicator that deep down, you must believe that waterboarding cannot be torture, even if you refuse to take a stance outright. After all, if as Americans we have already agreed that torture leaves irreversible mental and physical damage (as described in the legal definition), then how could individuals legitimately develop a resistance to the technique? Have you ever heard of someone developing resistance to the chopping off of their feet? What about the forced removal of their teeth? These aren’t even scenarios an individual can prepare for, unless of course, they administer the techinque to themselves, and unfortunately realize that it was a fruitless (but not bloodless) endeavor. The fact that you have eloquently described, and believed, that Navy SEALs and terrorists alike can easily train to withstand waterboarding (while retaining their mental and physical health) much like they can train and withstand the stresses of running a marathon, or lifting weights, proves to me that you truly cannot believe waterboarding is a torture technique.

Once again, I would like to thank you for your insightful letter, and as a Managing Editor and writer alike, I highly appreciated your input. However, I was rather disappointed by your relativist reasoning, especially since your examples and descriptions of terrorist and Navy SEAL behaviors indicate that waterboarding truly cannot be considered torture.

Sincerely,

Anish K. Mitra ‘10
Managing Editor for Production, Spectator