Speaking with ABC News, President Trump said that he would like to resume the use of waterboarding, stating that it “works,” and that we “have to fight fire with fire.” But he acknowledged that he would follow the lead of CIA Director Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary James Mattis, both of whom oppose the use of waterboarding. Trump stated, “If they don’t want to do, that’s fine. If they do want to do, then I will work toward that end. I want to do everything within the bounds of what you’re allowed to do legally. But do I feel it works? Absolutely, I feel it works.” Pompeo has already stated that he would “absolutely not” comply with an order to waterboard.
The media, predictably, have gone nuts. How could Trump say that torture works?
First off, its unclear whether waterboarding is torture. Some people find it to be self-evidently torture, but as Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) stated during the primaries, “Under the law, torture is excruciating pain that is equivalent to losing organs and systems…It is enhanced interrogation, it is vigorous interrogation, but it does not meet the generally recognized definition of torture.” I’ve watched my friend Steven Crowder waterboarded – it looked highly unpleasant, and Steven’s nuts for doing it, but he emerged not only unscathed but joked during the experience. Waterboarding is used to train Navy SEALs.
Then there’s the question of whether Trump is right. Does waterboarding work?
James Mitchell, a former chief CIA interrogator, wrote in The Wall Street Journal, “It is understandable that Gen. Mattis would say he never found waterboarding useful, because no one in the military has been authorized to waterboard a detainee. Thousands of U.S. military personnel have been waterboarded as part of their training, though the services eventually abandoned the practice after finding it too effective in getting even the most hardened warrior to reveal critical information.” Mitchell claims that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the man behind the 9/11 attacks and a crucial source of American information about terrorism, only broke thanks to waterboarding. KSM was waterboarded some 183 times. (Crowder was waterboarded several times during the session above, by way of contrast.) Jose Rodriguez, who once headed the CIA’s National Clandestine Service, has claimed that terrorist mastermind Abu Zubaydah also gave up key intelligence after being waterboarded.
In the media’s ardent desire to paint Donald Trump as a nutty dictator-in-waiting, they’ve actually made Trump more popular. Again. Trump isn’t saying anything most Americans don’t believe. A poll from last March showed that almost two-thirds of Americans thought waterboarding was appropriate for use on suspected terrorists. Just 15 percent of Americans thought waterboarding should be ruled out entirely.
Trump has his finger on the pulse of Americans when it comes to fighting terrorism. The media’s overstated outrage only makes more clear why Americans trust Trump to fight terrorism rather than the members of the press.
