Waterboarding is for Pansies.

'You asked me once,' said O'Brien, 'what was in Room 101. I told you that you knew the answer already. Everyone knows it. The thing that is in Room 101 is the worst thing in the world.'

The door opened again. A guard came in, carrying something made of wire, a box or basket of some kind. He set it down on the further table. Because of the position in which O'Brien was standing. Winston could not see what the thing was.

'The worst thing in the world,' said O'Brien, 'varies from individual to individual. It may be burial alive, or death by fire, or by drowning, or by impalement, or fifty other deaths. There are cases where it is some quite trivial thing, not even fatal.'

He had moved a little to one side, so that Winston had a better view of the thing on the table. It was an oblong wire cage with a handle on top for carrying it by. Fixed to the front of it was something that looked like a fencing mask, with the concave side outwards. Although it was three or four metres away from him, he could see that the cage was divided lengthways into two compartments, and that there was some kind of creature in each. They were rats.

'In your case,' said O'Brien, 'the worst thing in the world happens to be rats.' [George Orwell's 1984 Part III, Chapter 5.]

Those familiar with Orwell's 1984 know what happens next. And if you haven't, here's the final scene of the movie adaptation (embedding disabled).

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A scene which struck me, appropos of the following remarks from a recent exchange here at @ American Catholic:

"What John McCain suffered actually was torture. His bones were broken, for example. Induced panic isn’t torture."

"I don’t base the definition of torture on subjective determinations. Clearly it’s an issue of prudential judgment and it is certainly clear to me, someone who has severe panic attacks, that panic is not torture."

"If we cannot induce panic in our enemies with the intention of saving millions of lives, we can’t go to war at all. It’s as simple as that."

Waterboarding is for pansies. If Abū Zubaydah could withstand being waterboarded 83 times during August 2002, we're clearly not doing it right. Let's turn up the panic a few notches. Let's take it one step further. Let's put the fear of God almighty in these pathetic excuses for humanity.

Let's go Orwellian -- "Room 101" style.