There is a good reason we simulate torture on our own soldiers.

[Lint Head]

This point is never made when I hear a right wing nut Hoover Institute idiots say that we try this on our soldiers so it is not torture. This is done to let recruits know how it would feel if they are captured and tortured by an enemy that uses illegal criminal acts like torture. It is NOT to teach them how to torture. This ridicule's framing of this question by theocratic fascists drive me frigging batty.

[REACTIVATED IN CT]

1. Didja hear the guy on Wash Journal this AM asking if

the gummint should be prosecuted for doing this to him as part of training when he was in Special Forces ?


Your avatar - Robert Johnson ?

[NeedleCast]

2. It's also mostly BS

Very few US soldiers are subjected to anything that even approaches torture unless they're undergoing training for special forces type units. Most soldiers won't be subjected to anything beyond the equivalent of a rough day at the gym in the course of basic training and other standard training programs.

[TornadoTN]

4. We also don't make it standard practice to MURDER or permanately HARM our trainees

At least in the context of this training, as they are claiming.

[derby378]

7. Exactly

Waterboarding, conducted in the context of a fake POW camp during SERE training, leaves the subject with little more than the occasional nightmare and the memory of what it's like to undergo the procedure.

Real waterboarding, along with the rack, the strappado, high-voltage shocks, etc. are a completely different matter, and are not used at SERE as far as I'm aware. There is no sense in inflicting long-term injury on a soldier or sailor you want to deploy in a theater of operations for an extended period of time.

[populistdriven]

3. our soldiers always have an "out" they know they can and exactly how they can stop it at anytime

it simply isn't forced on them

[mopinko]

5. and even if they stick it out, they know when they are going home.

they know their families are safe. their children are not in the next cell, waiting their turn.
and yeah, we don't murder them. i kinda doubt we do "walling" on our soldiers, either.

[kentuck]

6. Excellent point.

At one time, I went thru the SERE at Ft Sill Oklahoma, considered to be the toughest in the continental US at the time. That was the purpose of that training also.