In this video, Joe Scarborough wheels out every dickish debating tactic and every fallacy about waterboarding in the far-right arsenal. I mean, it’s a truly stunning performance combining insane levels of ignorance with the worst brand of debating hackery I’ve ever witnessed on the cable outside of FOX News.
There are so many problems with Scarborough here in terms of both style and substance — I’m at a loss as to what to dissect first. And, to be honest, the facts and arguments have been repeated over and over for several dark years now.
But cowards like Scarborough don’t seem to care about what experts have to say. Above all else, Joe takes the position that irrespective of whether waterboarding is torture, it works (it doesn’t!) and therefore it has to be done or else we’ll all die.
In the video, Krystia Freeland is absolutely correct that it doesn’t work. But the efficacy of waterboarding is irrelevant in comparison to the broader problem that torture, in all of its forms, is illegal and immoral. I’m sure the Japanese, though, were thinking about their own safety and security when they waterboarded American prisoners:
Here’s the testimony of two Americans imprisoned by the Japanese:
They would lash me to a stretcher then prop me up against a table with my head down. They would then pour about two gallons of water from a pitcher into my nose and mouth until I lost consciousness.
And from the second prisoner:
They laid me out on a stretcher and strapped me on. The stretcher was then stood on end with my head almost touching the floor and my feet in the air. . . . They then began pouring water over my face and at times it was almost impossible for me to breathe without sucking in water.
As a result of such accounts, a number of Japanese prison-camp officers and guards were convicted of torture that clearly violated the laws of war.
You know what might also keep you safe, Joe? You coward? Nuclear missiles. So why don’t we just nuke Iran, southern Lebanon, Gaza and Waziristan and get it over with? If the ultimatum is do illegal thing X or else we’ll die, then why not?
The far-right’s willingness to randomly discard morality, domestic and international law simply to further the illusion of safety in a free society is perhaps the most dangerous and cowardly aspect of the far-right. Not just in terms of American policy, but also in terms of the precedent it sets for other nations who equally crave safety and security. What do they do when they feel like, for example, American soldiers and citizens are threatening their safety and security?
