Torturous Caterpillars

Memos were recently released by the Obama administration detailing the interrogation methods used on some captured terrorists during the Bush administration. Among the techniques described were “waterboarding”, “walling”, and confining the terrorist in a closed space with a caterpillar.

Walling seems to consist of pushing the terrorist up against a soft wall while the terrorist is wearing a neck brace to prevent injury. As a 1973 West Point graduate walling sounds like an extremely mild form of “bracing” a plebe. My class was officially the last class to experience bracing, but it used to be that freshmen West Point cadets were regularly braced against walls by upperclassmen. The plebe was required to push his neck back against the wall without the use of a neck brace and hold it there by his own strength for extended periods of time.

Confining a terrorist in a close space with a caterpillar, even if the subject thought the caterpillar was a “stinging insect”, hardly qualifies as torture. Waterboarding is a bit more strenuous but this, the most extreme of the interrogation techniques used, is just not in the same league with cigarette butts on the skin or electrodes on the testicles.

In fact the most amazing thing about these interrogation techniques is that they worked! If I were a Muslim or an Arab I would be ashamed that those who pretend to represent me are such cowards that they spill their guts in fear of a caterpillar.

Just what kinds of “warriors” are bred over there? Cowardice doesn’t begin to describe their capitulation; when they see a caterpillar, when they are braced against a wall, or when water is poured on the faces.

It is just astounding.

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