On Inauguration Day, it’s not hard to imagine Donald Trump taking the oath of office and saying in his first speech as president: “I am here to make America great again. And to our enemies abroad and at home, I want you to know that from this moment forward, America does torture.”
Lots of stories are being written assessing just how many of his campaign promises Donald Trump will keep. What will he do to the Paris agreement, what will he do regarding state marijuana laws, how many people will he deport, how quickly will he move to erase Obamacare, what will he do for his forced-birther friends and his Wall Street friends, and how many far-right nutcase generals and ex-generals will he will bring into his administration?
But scarcely anyone has publicly pondered what will be the impact of Trump’s off-stated views advocating torture to “beat the savages” by becoming one of them.
Sen. Tom Cotton, the Arkansas Republican, has thought about it. And he likes the idea:
During an interview on CNN, host Wolf Blitzer asked Cotton if he agrees with Trump's past statements saying that the United States should use "waterboarding and tougher than waterboarding," even though many military experts believe the practice is torture.
"Waterboarding isn’t torture. We do waterboarding to our own soldiers in the military," Cotton replied. [...[
"And radio DJs volunteer for it, so I don’t think something people volunteer for is torture."
The ignorance absolutely sparkles. Waterboarding is done to some U.S. soldiers. It’s called “training.” Something Cotton full well knows, having served as a combat officer in Iraq and Afghanistan. And though DJs aren’t always the brightest bulbs in the box, when they have volunteered to have waterboarding done on themselves to prove it’s no big deal, they change their minds in a hurry. Since the stubborn know-it-all Cotton rejects their experience, he should volunteer to test his views. And since we will soon have a reality TV star for president, it’s not just appropriate but culturally mandated that Cotton do this on national television.
Perhaps the experts at the CIA who waterboarded Abu Zubaydah 83 times can refresh their skills with a dozen or so goes on Cotton.
Tell you what, Senator. I will give you $500 if you agree to be waterboarded 10 times for 30 seconds at a time and then convincingly tell the audience that it wasn’t torture. Should be the easiest wager you ever won, right?