The use of waterboarding and other techniques commonly described as torture well predates Johnson. We used similar techniques against Filipino rebels during the Philippine Insurrection. One soldier court-martialed for killing a Catholic priest and several others through waterboarding during that war was refused by the military tribunal judging him from presenting into evidence the fact that his commander, General Grant (son of the Civil War general), supervised police officers using the same techniques while serving as Police Commissioner in New York City before the war. American occupying troops used torture against Nazi diehards engaged in a resistance movement in Germany. The U.S. Army, state militias, local posses, and Indian tribes often used inhumane methods against their enemies during the Plains Indian Wars. As the author of Ecclesiastes wrote, there is nothing new under the sun.
The defenders of waterboarding fall into the trap of the ends justifying the means. Its opponents engage in ridiculous exaggeration when comparing the techniques used with the extreme measures of the Japanese, the Communists, and the Nazis.
I thought it might go back farther than that. Thanks for the info.
I can’t believe that we’ve reached the point of arguing that torture is okay if it gets information.
You’re right - many opponents overstate the comparison between the torture we’ve been doing and the torture that has happened in even worse cases, and that just because it’s “not as bad” doesn’t make it ok.