Monica Rivera
Profesor Brown
English 1B
25 March 2013
Torture Is Torture
In Christopher Hitchens, “Believe Me, It’s Torture,” he
argues how waterboarding is in fact a form of torture. Waterboarding is a “tactic”
performed and/or endured by Green Berets and other special forces in training. Hitchens’
overall rhetorical success was attained through the use of logos, ethos, and
pathos.
Logos means: persuading by the use of reasoning
including; unspoken assumptions, use of evidence, and justification of claims.
Hitchens especially establishes the use of logos through unspoken assumption.
This is so because through the whole article he never gives what the actual
definition of torture is. He writes his article assuming the entire time that
everyone reading agrees that waterboarding is classified as torture. It’s
pretty safe to say that this is an unspoken assumption because the definition
of torture is an act committed by a person acting under the color of law
specifically intended to inflict sever physical or mental pain or suffering
(other than pain or suffering incidental to lawful sanctions) upon another
person within his custody or physical control; “severe mental pain or suffering”
means the prolonged mental harm caused by or resulting from-the intentional
infliction or threatened infliction of severe physical pain or suffering; the
administration of application, or threatened administration or application, of
mind-altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly
the senses or the personality; the threat of imminent death. By adding the
absolute definition of what torture mean it would have only made his claim
stronger. He might not have added in the definition because he took in
consideration through kairos, the timing and appropriateness for the occasion,
that the demographic reading Vanity Fair
already knew what the definition of torture was.
Hitchens also uses logos through justification of claims.
Not only his argument that waterboarding is torture but Hitchens himself
actually undergoes to become the victim of being waterboarded. He goes on to
tell about his experience through vivid details. This is an excellent example
of justification of claims because Hitchens wanted to leave no doubt to his
readers on whether or not waterboarding did torture the victims, which he
proves successfully.
The definition of ethos is a means of convincing by the
character of the author, including; appearing knowledgeable, audience-based reason,
and fairness to opposing views. Considering Christopher Hitchens is a writer
for a Vanity Fair, one of the most
established magazines in the world, gives the answer to the audience that he is
knowledgeable. If this is not enough evidence than that is okay because
Hitchens gives many knowledgeable examples and evidence in his articles. After
the third paragraph where he explains that he will be consenting to be a victim
of waterboarding, he gives us an excerpt from the document he had to agree to
and sign. It goes as follows, “’Water boarding’ is a potentially dangerous
activity in which the participant can receive serious and permanent (physical,
emotional, and psychological) injuries and even death, including injuries and
death due to respiratory and neurological systems of the body…As the agreement
went on to say, there would be safeguards provided during the ‘water boarding’
process, however, these measures may fail and even if they work properly they
may not prevent Hitchens from experiencing serious injury or death.” By giving
pieces of the contract that he had to sign shows how dangerous, if not deathly
waterboarding can be.
Hitchens article may seem one-sided at time, but he does give
fairness to opposing views. Although he does not agree or “trust anybody who
does not clearly understand this viewpoint,” he still gives a chance to see why
people might be in favor for waterboarding. He does by talking about Mr. Nance,
whom has been involved with the sere (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape)
program since 1997 and is in favor for waterboarding. He goes on to tell how
Mr. Nance has had a completely different experience with life than him and has
actually told him he “would personally cut bin Laden’s heart out with a plastic
M.R.E. spoon.” This being said, Mr. Nance does not even agree with the practice
or adoption of waterboarding by the United Sates. He goes on to say how it is
unjust, a torture technique, a means of extracting junk information, and that we
cannot get mad if other regimes perform waterboarding on captive U.S. citizens.
Pathos mean persuading by appealing to the reader’s
emotions, including; use of concrete language, use of specific examples and
illustration, use of narratives, use of words, metaphors, and analogies with
appropriate connotations, and language appeals. Hitchens proved his argument of
waterboarding being a form of torture especially through the use of pathos. Almost
every one of his sentences uses concrete language and definitely paints a
picture in your head of what it must be like to go through such extremeness. He
uses pathos in the first paragraph saying, “In these harsh exercises, brave men
and women were introduced to the sorts of barbarism that they might expect to
meet at the hands of a lawless foe who disregarded the Geneva Conventions.” This
is a prime example of the use of pathos because he uses strong adjectives and
he is appealing to our emotions by making us feel sorry for these people that
are undergoing these “exercises” to protect the rest of us.
“I held my breath for a while and then had to exhale and
as you might expect inhale in turn. The inhalation brought the damp cloths
tight against my nostrils, as if a huge, wet paw had been suddenly and annihilating
clamped over my face.” This is the excerpt from the part of Hitchens article
where he describes the actual first-hand experience of waterboarding. He makes
the reader feel that they are there and almost experiencing the torture and
pain he is going through, through the use of his words. At this point he makes
the reader understand how unbearable and barbaric this practice is and if they
have not agreed with his claim the entire time, they do now through the use of
emotions/pathos.
“I am somewhat proud of my ability to “keep my head,” as
the saying goes, and to maintain presence of mind under trying circumstances. I
was completely convinced that, when the water pressure had become intolerable,
I had firmly uttered the pre-determined code word that would cause it to cease.
But my interrogator told me that, rather, to his surprise, I had not spoken a
word. I has activated the “dead man’s handle” that signaled the onset of
unconsciousness.” Hitchens had believed that the waterboarding process had
ended because he told them to stop, but in fact that is not the case at all. Not
only is waterboarding a form of torture but a completely unreliable means of
getting information out of prisoners, which is the actual point of practicing waterboarding on captives.
Christopher Hitchens’ point in writing, “Believe Me, It’s
Torture,” was to convince or sway the reader(s) that waterboarding is in fact a
form of torture and should not be practiced for any reason. When the definition
of waterboarding and the definition of torture are explained than there is no
way that the reader could consider disagreeing with Hitchens because they are
almost exactly the same word for word. Even if the reader did not know what
waterboarding was before reading this article, they do now because Hitchens
explained it so well through the use of logos, ethos, and pathos. He was also
successful through the use of kairos.
