Posted on 04/26/2009 6:20:31 AM PDT by Eric
My fellow veterans please forgive me. But I must purge my soul. I only ask that you reserve judgment until you read all of if. I only want peace for all and a world free of torture.
What I saw in the military was much worse than water boarding. The prisoners were taken to a 12 foot deep pool. Feet weighted they were forced into the pool. Those who hesitated, were moved onto a plank high above the pool and forced off. They were to stay in this deep water for over an hour feet weighted and in full clothing. Those who touched the side of the pool had their fingers stepped on by angry guards. Not enough to break their fingers as that would reveal this terrible secret but just enough to inflect severe pain without detectable injury. The guards knew their craft well. Like water boarding, the prisoners were not allowed to drown. No, that would expose the cover-up.
It gets worse! I must tell all! They were then taken to a wooden building far from the main complex. A lantern like device burned in the middle of the building. It gave off a horrible gas. The prisoners were forced to run around the lantern without the benefit of the gas masks worn by the guards and sing in their native language their countrys patriotic songs. I saw them with my own eyes as they were finally released from the windowless building: eyes red, mucus flowing uncontrollably from their mouths and noses. Some looked near death. A spec of humanity prevailed as they were allowed to recover for several minutes before being taken to the bleachers.
The prisoners were taken to the bleachers. I think there were about one hundred of them. They were not restrained, no that would blow this horrible trick. The bleachers were located in a bug infested marsh. Those prisoners who moved their hands in any effort to ward of the flying bugs were severely punished. Mockingly, the guards in the native language of the prisoners said that their bugs had to eat too. The guard threw a dud hand grenade into the helpless group. He laughed as they scattered in terror. The prisoners were regathered and prepared for more.
I saw one prisoner taken out of out of line in just his shorts which were on backwards. Horrible sexual innuendos and insults were directed at him. I saw a tear roll down his cheek.
The prisoners were United States Marine recruits the torture described above was part of our training. The guards were drill instructors. The above is why we shake our heads in disbelief when water-boarding, bugs, and loud music are described as torture by the main stream press.
The above prepared us for combat so that fair-weather pacifists can stand on our street corners only in the best of weather. God forbid, they should be out in the cold or even worse the rain as that would resemble water-boarding.
Ed
USMC.
Vietnam 1967-1968
The bleachers were located in a bug infested marsh.Parris Island?
Nawwww...Torture for US Military training was the Tear Gas room, where you remove your mask and try and find your way out of a Tear Gas Filled Room.
Pelosi doesn’t know about this either, as she has never talked to someone who has fought for her Country (that she liked).
This letter needs to go to the media. Sean Hannity, Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh, etc. I think it's great!
It would be funny if some of the liberals read it without reading to the end and started posting it as “PROOF of TORTURE.”
I suspected the motive when I got to the portion about the gas exposure. It sounded too much like my basic training. Sure enough, it was...
Was this written by Yaaawn Kerry?
Pray for America and Our Troops
>The prisoners were taken to a 12 foot deep pool. Feet weighted they were forced into the pool.
[snip]
>They were to stay in this deep water for over an hour feet weighted and in full clothing.
12 ft water is deep, heck even 8 ft water is deep, considering the normal heights of human beings. Feet weighted, and treading water, for over an hour... doesn’t really mesh. While it _can_ be done, as in the cases of sailors overboard, these three sentences don’t really go together. (I mean in 8 ft of water w/ cement overshoes the mafia can _easily_ eliminate someone.)
Excellent point, very well made.
Thanks for posting.
And thanks to the vets for their service.
We were given hot water to drink, and I drank a lot of water so I had to go #1 a lot, then I would close a curtain and stretch my back for a few minutes while the guards were not looking. We were pulled out from the cell(s) several times and taken to interrogation rooms, where were made to “push” a wall with our index fingers while leaning into the wall, or were bitch-slapped, or some of us with an attitude were waterboarded; and I cried like a little girl at the end.
My back and neck got hurt so bad, that I was literally in tears during the last two days of training-and still hurt every day to this date. But you know what? It was THE BEST DAMN TRAINING I have ever been to! I learned about myself and what my breaking point was.
PS. I also underwent Chief Petty Officer initiation, which makes a fraternity hazing party look like a homecoming dance. I remember they put us in a close room with open cans of rotting fish while they PT’d us to exhaustion. Some of us puked and maybe someone passed out. CPO initiation made me a better NCO and a better human being!
Liberal winnies- MAN UP!
Great letter by your friend, Eric. When the NYT doesn’t publish it, he should send it to the NY Post.
Sorry, I’m not convinced. I can think of 5 to 10 “methods of treatment” that are torture even though they do not leave scars or cause bodily harm.
How about when a NVA “reeducation camp” interrogator hangs an former RSVN cavalry officer from his feet, binds his mouth closed, and pours fish sauce into his nostrils. Is that “torture”, or not?
That happened to the husband of my wife’s friend. I’ve met the guy. I think he’d call it “torture.”
When I saw the painting of a waterboarding session hanging in the former Khmer Rouge S-21 torture and interrogation center in Phnom Penh - and with the actual waterboarding device depicted in the painting right there in front of me - I could clearly see that this one of the several torture methods employed by the KR to extract confessions.
Do a Google on “S-21 Toul Sleng” to see the other methods, none of which by the way were necessarily deadly. Most of the S-21 victimes were trucked 10km away to the Chouoeng Ek “killing fields” to be dispatched.
Sorry, but if the KR did it at S-21, it’s torture.
No conceivable rhetoric can change my mind on that.
And by the way, it was right and proper for waterboarding - torture - to be used on KSM and any other jihadi. It would be right again to use waterboarding in the future.
Well said!
>I did. As a former Marine myself, I was reading this and getting angrier by the word thinking BS- I went through this in training! Torture, my ass!.
Ok, the water part, was it really 12 feet? I kind of disbelieve that part, 7 or 8 feet sounds a bit more plausible to me.
{I’m army, so I didn’t have to do that, but I do remember the gas chamber... when he got to that part I was thinking “Ha, that’s just CS gas, I had to do the same thing!”}
>No. Its a tradition on FR to respond after reading the first paragraph.
*nod* _THEN_ you read the rest of it. ;)
I don’t remember, that was more than 25 years ago. I’m 6’ tall, and it was way over my head. It didn’t matter to me if it was 8’ or 80’. You had to jump off of a ship mockup and tread water for a long time.
Thanks for posting the link- Liz Cheney is remarkable. She thoroughly schools the self-righteous Norah O’Donnell.
And yet- it’s doubtful Norah truly listened to a thing she heard.
When I read - “I saw a tear roll down his cheek” - I thought maybe there is such a thing as a bleeding heart liberal Marine.
Whew that was close.....Great ending to the letter!
GOD BLESS THE UNITED STATES MARINE CORE!
“Poor treatment of prisoners - yes. Torture - no.”
I’m happy with “Torture - yes.” Until the Muzzies can restore the lives lost on 9/11, Daniel Pearl’s beheading, etc., I say “Torture away. The worse the better.” Whatever it takes to get those f**kers to talk, or even suffer based on the principle of the thing, I’m for it.
Did you read anything beyond the headline? Sheesh!
Anybody want to give OneWingedShark an education?
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