To Dunk Or Not To Dunk

WATERBOARDING SIDESHOW PONDERS TECHNIQUE

By Mande Wilkes

FITSNews - August 7, 2008 - While Republican presidential nominee John McCain has engaged the country in an “is-it-or-isn’t-it” see-saw regarding waterboarding, one Brooklyn artist is cashing in on the question of whether the interrogation incentive should be classified as torture.

Steve Powers has created the “Waterboard Thrill Ride” at Coney Island, where customers pay to watch a robotic enactment of the technique.

“Robot waterboarding became a way of exploring the issue without doing any harm. It’s putting a unique experience on the table. And it doesn’t take a great leap of the imagination to look in there and say: ‘That’s really what’s going on? That’s crazy.’”

Crazy? Maybe. Torture? Definitely. And that’s what so incredible about this whole debate: Of course it’s torture to make someone feel like they’re drowning!

That proponents argue that waterboarding is not torture underscores America’s PC-deluded political panorama.

And similarly, that opponents reject it on the basis of its classification highlights the brimming superficiality that passes for thoughtful cultural discourse.

In the millennial political paradigm, right and wrong is a matter of liturgy and labels.

Pursuant to the populist perspective, waterboarding’s acceptability is wholly determined by whether it’s deemed torture. If it’s called torture, it’s sadistic: Americans do not “do” torture!

But if it does not snugly fit the definition of torture? Well then, interrogators, have at ‘em!

While Powers, the sideshow’s creator, gets credit for creativity, he fails at getting at the real issue, which is packed under a pile of red herrings and wrapped in nuance: Proponents say it’s worth it and opponents say it’s not worth it, but to what “it” are we referring?

Obviously, our founding editor has expressed his own nuclear views on the effective prosecution of the war on terror (ism?), to which we can only say it speaks volumes that waterboarding didn’t make his list!