Is Waterboarding a Torture ?  Have we gone so low that we are now not sure?

US Attorney General nominee Judge Mukasey last week has refused to define waterboarding on terror suspects as torture. 

Former Republican Congressman Joe Scarborough quickly spoke out in its favor in his television broadcast saying that the waterboard is a viable tool to be used on Al Qaeda suspects.

He said that when it was used on Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who is the Al Qaeda number two guy that planned 9/11, he talked. He then speculated that “If you ask Americans whether they think it's okay for us to waterboard in a controlled environment … 90% of Americans will say 'yes.'” But he said he did not support the type of torture that  John McCain had to endure.

This has sparked a debate on waterboarding. 

I cannot believe that we have come to this stage where we can no longer be sure if waterboarding is torture.

Waterboarding is TORTURE. There is no way to gloss over it or sugarcoat it. It has no justification. 

Waterboarding is in fact controlled drowning that occurs under the watch of a doctor, a psychologist, an interrogator and a trained strap-in/strap-out team. It does not simulate drowning, as the lungs are actually filling with water. The victim is drowning.

How much the victim is to drown depends on the desired result (in the form of answers to questions shouted into the victim’s face) and the obstinacy of the subject. 

Waterboarding is slow motion suffocation with enough time to contemplate the inevitability of black out and expiration –usually the person goes into hysterics on the board. For the uninitiated, it is horrifying to watch and if it goes wrong, it can lead straight to terminal hypoxia. When done right it is controlled death. Its lack of physical scarring allows the victim to recover and be threaten with its use again and again.