Water boarding is torture and should not be used by the U.S. and their allies.

Thank you for taking up the challenge and I hope to have an interesting and fulfilling debate where we can both argue the issue productively! You rightly broke my challenge up into three sections: That water boarding is torture; that it shouldn't be used by the US and that it shouldn't be used by their allies. I will tackle each point in turn and will like to not only see rebuttals from Con, but I'd also ask (if they're so kind) to give reasons why water boarding isn't torture, why the US should use it and why their allies should as well. Firstly I will discuss why it is torture. To start, the definition of torture is "The action or practice of inflicting severe pain on someone as a punishment or in order to force them to do or say something". Water boarding is when a cloth or a rag or something material that isn't waterproof is placed over the victims head and in some way (it differs from person to person) it smothers the individual which doesn't allow them to breath without inhaling water through either their nose, mouth or both. It is torture because it causes severe pain, panic and discomfort to the individual because it doesn't allow them the basic need to breath normally; it would panic any one. Secondly, it is used as both a punishment and a way to make those who are under its effects to reveal information, be it true or not. There are a few individuals like Christopher Hitchens, Mancow Muller and Steve Harrigan who have undergone water boarding in a controlled environment and even in that situation they could recognise how painful it was and how it could make them talk if they were looking for information. From this, it is clear that water boarding is torture. Secondly, the US shouldn't use it for the following reasons. To start with, torture against human beings is wrong and it shouldn't be endorsed. Torture is one of the worst experiences any one can go through; it isn't only physically damaging but is emotionally and psychologically damaging. Following on from this, more specifically, those who endorse water boarding on suspected terrorists or other suspected people because the enemy uses it seems to be a fallacy; they seem to endorse something they say they detest being done to their soldiers, more than a little contradictory I'm sure you'd agree. Just because the so called "enemy" uses the techniques, then surely those against those people wouldn't practice what they abhor and find disgusting practices? But they do; and they relish the opportunity to. Even if the prior points I have briefly set out are acceptable, torture isn't a full proof practice. Even those who have no information and are being water boarded will tell the torturers anything to make the pain cease; when you're being water boarded (as Christopher Hitchens discusses in both the video and his article linked below) anything is better than the horror and the desperation you're feeling in that moment. On to the third point; why US' allies shouldn't either. It is for the same points above and I cannot see why the US or the allies should be taken as different in water boarding being wrong because as I have stated above, water boarding is torture and I believe torture to be wrong no matter what country/countries are involved. Sources: Torture definition: Google dictionary definition of "torture". Christopher Hitchens on being water boarded: http://www.youtube.com... and his article on it http://www.vanityfair.com... Water boarding information: http://en.wikipedia.org...