TORTURE

Ever since the infamous pictures of the "atrocities" being perpetrated against those poor innocent farmers held at the Abu Graib holding facility in Iraq, the topic of torture has been a favorite of lefty bloggers and talking heads.

The Abu Graib scandal broke smack dab in the middle of the writing of my first book a few years ago. Knowing I was going to include a few words about the incident, I had to do some research on the topic. I searched the Internet and scoured the magazines and newspapers in search of these pictures I had been hearing so much about that were supposed to include barbaric acts of torture, I kept running across the same photos of naked terrorists and laughing Army soldiers.
I kept waiting to see pictures of red hot pokers being applied to exposed genitals, toes being smashed with hammers, or brass knuckles being used to beat suspected terrorists into submission. But these photos never surfaced. Just more pictures of terrorists being humiliated by female soldiers or intimidated by barking dogs. This is what all the hysteria was about?

My first reaction was to question the mildness of the tactics being applied at Abu Graib, then I remembered who we're dealing with. This particular enemy is trained to endure typical acts of physical violence. So when you pull out the Karate chops, they are not impressed. If you want to get intel from a radical Islamic terrorist, you need to wound his pride. That means utilizing the ultimate acts of shame and degradation as taught in their own culture...ridicule by a woman. Bamboo chutes under the finger nails may or may not get you what you need to know, but threaten to send pictures of non-burka covered Western women pointing and laughing at his "junk" to all his friends and family, and your captured terrorist will probably tell you the pin number to Bin Laden's bank account.

Flash forward to present day. The libs have gotten their collective panties in a wad over "water boarding". A field tested and result driven practice that involves making a terrorist believe that he's going to drown by dunking him upside down under water. Not actually drown, but make him think he's drowning. Of course on top of that, there is the ultimate acts of barbarity, loud rap music and/or turning the AC up or down too far for comfort.

For those of you libs out there who haven't quite figured out the difference between torture and what we actually do to terrorists, I have devised a little exercise that should help clear it all up for you.
The next time you hear of a tactic used by our military to get life saving intelligence from an enemy who's peace-time home-life includes such practices as genital mutilation of their daughters, ask yourself the following question: "Would I or could I voluntarily endure this tactic for $1000.00?" If the answer is "yes", then it's NOT torture. If the tactic will likely result in re-constructive surgery, colostomy bags, years of physical and/or psychological therapy, or a prosthetic limb, then you might be talking about legitimate torture.
I'm sorry, but I just can't classify something that I might do on a dare after a few beers on a Friday night out with the guys as "torture".
If you want to see torture, give me a half an hour with one of the I.E.D. planting cowards in my garage and I'll be glad to demonstrate to everyone what real torture is. I have a "bitchin' set of tools" (to quote Spicoli from Fast Times...) and a wild imagination.