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Published : July 27th, 2012
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Category : Editorials

 

 

 

 

What do the Nazi Gestapo, the South African police during Apartheid, the Japanese military during World War II, Spanish "Grand Inquisitor" Tomas de Torquemada, William Kristol, Charles Krauthammer, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Senator Joe Lieberman, and Marc Levin have in common? The answer is that they were/are all practitioners of or apologists for forms of water torture that have long been illegal under U.S. and international law. (The U.S. executed Japanese soldiers during World War II for the war crime of water torture). In the U.S. in recent years it has been called "water boarding."

These parallels were brought to mind recently while re-reading F.A. Hayek’s classic, The Road to Serfdom. In Chapter 10, entitled "Why the Worst Get to the Top," Hayek wrote that in a totalitarian state (or one that is becoming more so), "to be a useful assistant in the running of a totalitarian state, it is not enough that a man should be prepared to accept specious justification of vile deeds; he must himself be prepared actively to break every moral rule he has ever known . . ." Moreover, he "must be completely unprincipled and literally capable of everything." Those who aspire to "leading positions" in "the totalitarian machine," wrote Hayek, will come to understand that "there will be special opportunities for the ruthless and unscrupulous" where one can prosper by practicing "cruelty and intimidation, deliberate deception and spying . . ." Hayek was referring to the fascist and socialist regimes of the 1940s, but his words also seem increasingly descriptive of contemporary American government with its taser-armed rogue police thugs, its TSA gropers and perverts, its constant bombardment of the public with lies about just about everything, and its spy cameras on street corners, in satellites, drones, warrantless wiretaps, internet spying, and worse.

The Spanish "Water Cure"

Water torture was a totalitarian tool used by the Spanish "Grand Inquisitor" Tomas de Torquemada during the fifteenth-century Spanish Inquisition. The accused were placed naked on a table with their feet elevated, hands and legs bound, and their nose blocked. Water was poured into his or her mouth which was then stuffed with a rag so that the water could not be spit out. It would create the sensation of drowning and in some cases the stomach would feel as though it would burst – or it would burst, killing the victim.

The purpose of what the Spaniards called "the water cure" was to torture people who had converted from Judaism to Catholicism but were suspected of secretly practicing their original religion. (For example, the absence of smoke from chimneys on Saturdays, the Jewish Sabbath, was considered to be a strong indication that the accused was a Jew since Judaism forbade performing labor such as lighting chimney fires on the Sabbath). Several thousand Jews were eventually convicted and executed after enduring "the water cure." The sentence for "heresy" was burning at the stake. This was one of the worst examples in history of the evils of the non-separation of church and state.

The American "Water Cure"

The U.S. military has employed a version of Torquemada’s "water cure" almost from the beginning of the republic. It was used extensively by the Lincoln administration on Northern civilians during the War to Prevent Southern Independence according to historian and Lincoln cultist Mark Neely, Jr. in his book, Fate of Liberty. Article 3, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution defines treason as "only levying war upon the States . . ." which of course is exactly what Lincoln’s invasion of the Southern states was. But Lincoln took it upon himself to personally redefine treason as being any criticism of himself, his policies, or the Republican Party. Consequently, hundreds of newspapers in the North were shut down and tens of thousands of Northern civilians were imprisoned without due process (Habeas Corpus having been illegally suspended) under the guise of battling "treason." Lincoln himself even once announced that a man who merely remains silent while his administration’s policies were being discussed was being traitorous. All of the totalitarian communist governments of the twentieth century espoused the same notion and enforced it vigorously.

Neely writes of how Northern state citizens suspected of not being fully supportive of the Lincoln regime were frequently dragged into a gulag without due process and tortured with hoses shoved down their throats until their stomachs sometimes burst. The practice came to light when a British citizen visiting the U.S. was mistakenly arrested, imprisoned, and tortured. British envoy to the U.S., Lord Lyons, learned of it and protested loudly. If it were not for Lord Lyons, the American public might never have learned of the use of "the water cure" by the U.S. Army. Even though such barbaric practices were illegal under U.S. law, Neely wrote of how the Lincoln administration did nothing more than make note of Lord Lyons’ protest and then continued on with the practice for the duration of the war.

The Spanish "water cure" was also used extensively during the U.S. military’s next Big Adventure, the Spanish-American War. As described by Gregg Jones in Honor in the Dust: Theodore Roosevelt, War in the Philippines, and the Rise and Fall of America’s Imperial Dream (p. 209), tactics against Filipino villagers included:

. . . burning of houses or entire villages, torture of witnesses or suspects, and, in some cases, summary execution of suspected guerrillas. Gordon’s Scouts, an elite 18th Infantry mounted outfit, was widely feared . . . for its harsh tactics. Its favorite interrogation technique was the ‘water cure,’ in which a victim was held down, his mouth pried open with a piece of bamboo or a rifle barrel, and dirty or salty water poured down his throat until the stomach swelled to the bursting point – a painful procedure that typically produced quick results.

Jones further describes the torture of the mayor of a small village who, when asked if he knew where the leader of the rebels was, said that he had no idea. A Captain Glenn, who had kicked Catholic nuns out of their convent and made it into his headquarters, ordered "water detail" for the mayor. As Jones writes (p. 213), the mayor was:

Thrown to the floor beneath a water tank, his mouth forced open and the spigot turned. As water gushed down the Filipino’s throat and filled his stomach, an interpreter stood over him, ordering . . . Answer! Answer! When [the mayor] was filled with water, [soldiers] pounded his stomach with their fists. Water spurted from the man’s nose and mouth, and the process began anew.

The mayor eventually talked, but the American soldiers didn’t believe what he told them, so that a second round of "the water cure" was ordered. His stomach was filled with water again, and a "syringe was placed in his nose and more water forced into him. When that also failed to yield the desired answer . . . salt was thrown into the water can . . ."

Frustrated by their lack of success with the "water cure," the American military officer in charge then "ordered the town burned. Torches were lit and, as terrified families fled their houses with the few possessions they could carry, the American soldiers fanned out" to start more fires. "By midnight, fewer than twenty of the five hundred structures in [the town] remained standing." And Theodore Roosevelt called the Filipinos "savages."

General Sherman would have been proud, since it sounds so much like his bombardment and burning of Atlanta in 1864 after the Confederate Army had evacuated that city. Earlier in the war, Sherman had ordered the burning of the entire town of Randolph, Tennessee, in frustration over his failure to apprehend rebel sharpshooters along the Mississippi River.

As Hayek said, totalitarian societies provide ample "leadership" (and money-making) opportunities for those who are willing to abandon all morals and brutalize or even murder for the sake of the regime. There are also lucrative "leadership" opportunities for academic or journalistic apologists for such regimes. Which brings us to today’s champions of the U.S. military’s use of "the water cure." First we have Senator Joe Lieberman who has declared that "water boarding is not torture." (Senator John McCain, who was extensively tortured for years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, has unequivocally stated that it is indeed torture).

William Kristol once suggested that the military practitioners of water boarding be given the Medal of Freedom. Writing in Kristol’s magazine, The Weekly Standard, Michael Goldfarb wrote that "to call this torture . . . diminishes the very real torture" practiced by "rogue states." Goldfarb also suggested that this favorite tool of the Nazi Gestapo may actually "give you a buzz," kind of like having a couple of martinis before dinner or smoking a joint.

Psychiatrist and television talking head Charles Krauthammer defended the American "water cure" by making the intellectually sophisticated argument that "you have to do what you have to do." The screeching and screaming radio loudmouth Marc Levin once shouted in defense of water torture on his radio program: "Why in the hell would we take an effective tool off the table?!"

The answer to this question posed by "The Grate One" was answered by Jesse Ventura on a television program in which he said (paraphrasing), "Give me Dick Cheney and water boarding and I will get him to confess to the Sharon Tate murders." In other words, human nature suggests that people undergoing such torture will say anything to end their misery. This is not a complicated or sophisticated point. The public will never know if any information of any value at all was ever acquired by the U.S. military’s use of this totalitarian tool, for the government lies about everything, especially the conduct of the CIA, the administrators of the twenty-first century version of the Spanish "water cure."

 

 

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Thomas DiLorenzo is professor of economics at Loyola College, Maryland, and a senior fellow at the Ludwig von Mises Institute. He is the author or co-author of ten books, on subjects such as antitrust, group-interest politics, and interventionism generally
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Well, sure enough, someone has said it better than I ever could. Thanks Jesse...

http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/
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Credit, where credit is due...like the blind squirrel, Lil' Tommy has found a nut. Unfortunately, and as usual, it has absolutely nothing to do with economics.

His premise is correct: waterboarding is torture. It has been since the Spanish Inquisition and has been documented accordingly. Well done on pointing that out. (I wonder if our brave Sean Hannity has put his money where his mouth is yet. Not likely.) Instead of getting lost in the weeds again with his ridiculous fixation on Lincoln, he could have easily made the next logical step. ie. it is an EFFECT, not a CAUSE.

In other words, the appropriate argument would have been that the Bush & Obama administration's flouting of the law LED to waterboarding. Torture is illegal. But for more than a decade, our attorneys general won't enforce the law. Breaking the law is a common feature in totalitarian governments. But if the law only applies to 'little people', you may call it a Republic, but it really is a fascist state with a facsimile of justice.

Focus, Lil' Tommy, focus.
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Jim C is correct is his criticisms. I also have never read Tom D. condemning slavery or Southern generals for their support of it. And for Tom D. to constantly say Lincoln started the Civil War is insane, when we all know the South fired the first shot.

There is something wrong with this article and Jim C. offers a reasonable explanation.
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So the south fired the first bullet. Ask yourself this, after how much provocation did they fire that shot? How much pressure does it take to get someone to finally break, say enough, and push back. Nothing has changed, Obama is doing the same thing with Iran. He and his cohorts will keep pushing till Iran goes squirrely and shoots something. Then the good ole defender of the free world will tell everyone "We always knew they were no goodnicks and need to be punished".

How many times have past US presidents through their manipulations "pushed" other sovereign states into conflict and then taken the high ground??? All in an effort to get rid of the governments that didn’t play the game the way the US wants to play. Exactly what Lincoln did.
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I'm glad you agree that the South fired the first shot. The initiation of violence constitutes guilt in any court of law. I'm not aware that Lincoln did anything to provoke anybody. in fact the abolitionist northern press was angry at Lincoln for saying nothing about slavery as president elect. Even had Lincoln said something, would condemnation of the evil of slavery constitute provocation and a resort to physical violence?
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I could go on and on, create several analogies for you Jim but I know the effort wouldn't be worth it, we've already gone over this previous comment threads. The real issue is that your comments have nothing to do with the article. This is how you operate, you make comments totally unrelated to the article just so you can see your words in print.

You need to get out more.
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Whoa... Now you’re saying that Lincolns continuation of allowing slavery was a "compromise"? Wow what twisted rewrite of history will you come up with next? It took a year for Lincoln to abolish slavery AFTER the end of the war! A year! Why would it take a year if it was such an important issue for Lincoln. The result is that Lincoln was NOT opposed to slavery and not the hero everyone wants to remember him as. Give it a rest already Jim C and stop trying to push a dead theory.

And again, your response has nothing to do with the article. Your only purpose for writing your comment it seems is to allow you the "power" to smear someone without actually saying anything relevant to the article. You keep evaluating the individual, over and over bringing up the same old crap, instead of actually having anything to say about the material in the article. You’re in Jack Russell Terrier mode again, obsessing on your hatred for anyone who dares to have a different opinion.

You sir are what we refer to as a low life. And you had so much potential, if only you could get rid of your hate and focus on being constructive.
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I could go on and on, create several analogies for you Jim but I know the effort wouldn't be worth it, we've already gone over this previous comment threads. The real issue is that your comments have nothing to do with the article. This is how you operat  Read more
Hart - 7/27/2012 at 7:05 PM GMT
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