Well, everyone in the US Special Forces was waterboarded, as part of survival training. Hell, the US even took the methods used in Gitmo from USSF boot camp.
Also- where did you read that the Gitmo inmates were waterboarded for 7 years?
Do you know what the washout rate in Special Forces training is?
As a matter of fact, waterboard training for Special Forces was (at one point)
discontinued because it was so effective it hurt morale.
(Plus, they've already been self-selected for mental toughness, so those are already the people most likely to endure it.)
A strong article on the subject, including the author's post-traumatic reactions to a relatively mild experience of waterboarding.Being waterboarded once is enough. Victims suffer long-term depression, panic attacks, and PTSD, which are among the most horrendous conditions that can be visited upon a human being. Some waterboarding victims panic and gasp for breath every time it so much as rains -- along with tachycardia and all the physical responses of a body preparing itself for death.
These are not experiences that most people can survive intact. What's more, we as a nation shouldn't have to stoop that low. We're better than terrorists.
