Quote Originally Posted by Oneironaut View Post
So...I have a question for those who say water boarding isn't torture.

It seems to be said that WB isn't torture because "the victim feels just some fear and slight physical discomfort." The fear aspect, though, has to do with the direct fear of death, whether or not death by water boarding is actually possible.

Well how about repeated rape? Physiologically, sex is not only usually 'slight physical discomfort', but it actually feels good. What the victim is feeling is that fear of being violated and possibly being left for dead

The question is, would you not consider a woman who'd been locked in a basement and raped repeatedly (even if there was no physical pain involved) a woman who had been tortured?

Since the argument against WB being labeled a form of torture seems to hinge on technicality - if you do figure this scenario as that of a tortured woman - why do you feel it's so much worse than the water boarding scenario?
I don't think waterboarding makes the person feel "just some fear". I think it causes panic, but it is nothing like the panic attack caused by rape. It is also not something that, if performed correctly, will cause severe emotional disturbance that lasts the rest of a person's life like rape often does.

Like I suggested, there is a spectrum. Somewhere between a raised voice and a cutting off of legs are waterboarding, the threshold of torture, a paper cut, and rape (not necessarily in that order). Where that torture threshold is exactly is starting to look pretty subjective.

If you think giving somebody a papercut is torture, do you think tasering somebody is torture? What about tackling somebody resisting arrest?