Water Boarding & the Gopher

Over the recent weeks water boarding has been one of the main subjects of the country. Is it torture, or not? Is it necessary, or not? Many of us have pondered "what would we do" if the decision was left up to one of us to exercise this most controversial option.

Well on this day I got my turn. I was doing yard work and noticed that there were a lot of gopher holes in my yard. I was so mad I was cursing, throwing things, wishing I good get my hands on this damn rodent. I was being terrorised! As I went on with the my chores for the day, an opportune chance came my way. I was watering the grass and I noticed one of the gopher's holes (I spelled it out, so you can"t go there), so I began putting water in the hole. To my surprise the gopher came out the hole gagging for air. I said to myself "I got this yard terrorist, and I'm going to drown this purveyor of holes to death"! As I began the intricate water boarding technique, I tried to put myself in the shoes of former Vice-President Dick Cheney, with all the good feelings he must of had and of course accompanied by oohs and ahhh's of watching something suffer. It's was impossible for me to use fear as an apparatus, since the gopher was so small compared to myself. Could this be the real reason for the war with Iraq, that it was so easy for the Bush administration to wage? ...That makes them bullies.

During this process I noticed as the gopher continued to gag (at the constant dowsing of water) it some how wasn't enough. I wanted answers to my wondering, if there were more gofers or did this one act alone? Did the other holes in my yard possess baby gofers? I wanted to know. I wanted answers. Determined to get answers, I went in my house and pulled my daughter's blue pit "November" to back yard to finish the job. What happen next was amazing. Pits which are known for their aggressive behavior to tear someone apart just looked. November stared at the helpless gofer and then stared at me. Moments later she walked back into the house as if to suggest I had no heart. Imagine that, a primitive beast showing compassion...hmmm.

Now of course, I could effectively and convincingly make the argument that this was the right course of action to take because of the damage done to my yard by this rodent, but was the damage to my yard worthy of the punishment? Well after having second thoughts on what I was doing, it became obvious that the rodent wasn't giving up any answers as to the whereabouts of the other rodents (if any) nor did I understand gopher language (it was quite obvious I needed an interpreter). Now frustrated, I stopped the infamous style of truth getting and let Gilleta go (I just couldn't let her go without naming her since we have been so intimate). I came to my senses and understood that the only thing Gilleta knows is digging!

Now how does this little incident apply to the current situation on water boarding? Simple. If a people can say of themselves that "we are superior", they would have to ask themselves "is this an attribute and/or behavior of a superior people"? Do superior people stoop to such barbaric levels of beastly behavior in order the get to the truth or to arrive at what they want the truth to be? Would these superior people freely give information if it were them on the other side of this treatment? Now don't get me wrong, we should never forget those who died on 9/11, but don't we owe it to them to really find those who committed this crime? Killing innocent people is not going to get the answers you want. The United States since the start of the war have lost approximately 8,000 people (combined war and World Trade Center). The Iraqis lost over 250,000. What would the U.S. do if the tables were turned. ...The missiles would fly.

To use fear as the main apparatus to get the majority to follow you (to quickly get to war instead of getting all the details first) shows lack of proof, reasoning and the truth. The money spent was for nothing! The only thing this has accomplished is to make the weapon corporations wealthier, families cry, and the United States bankrupt. If attacked by terrorist you use terrorist (CIA, FBI etc...) to find terrorist not whole armies. Armies are used for Nation against Nation. Individuals move too fast for standing armies. Some in the defense department I imagine knew this! So what was the purpose? To quell emotions? This would have been served better by getting the people who did the crime.

Back to the main reason for this blog. Water boarding Gilleta didn't get the results I was looking for. To compare the tragedy of 9/11 with this micro-situation is ridiculous... Gilleta lives. My main focus is to get some of us to re-think our position. Are we the standard barres for the rest of the world, or is it just a fallacy? If we are, then maybe we should act like it....