Drown..

Imagine being drowned.

Water fills your lungs, your heart races. Your head pounds, desperate for oxygen. The hood over your face won't let you up. Your limbs are strapped down, and the man standing over you is screaming at you. At first his words are sharp and clear, but as your brain is slowly deprived of oxygen, you can't hear him so well any more.

You try to hold your breath as the water is forced down on your face for minutes at a time. No matter how calm you thought you would be, you can't help that sinking feeling in your gut.

The water goes up your nose, and flows through your nasal cavities, making you twinge with sudden cold and desperation. Then you gag on the water, but that only hasten the opening of your bronchial passages to the flow of chill death seeping into your lungs. Your chest feels so tight, like you are coughing on a candy stuck in your throat, but much worse. The sudden fear envelops you.

“I'm DYING!” Your body is screaming at you. Your central nervous system lapses into convulsions. You kick and spasm. You scream, but the water, the hood, and the lack of air in your lungs won't let you.

You thoughts are racing. Time slows down as a natural result of your brain-chemistry being deprived oxygen. You have time to clearly experience the cold water flowing into your lungs, every nuance of your own nasal cavity being flooded, the straps holding your twisting body to the hard surface below you. You have time to experience the slow meaning of death. The very gates of hell are opening to you now, as time slows to a standstill. Hundreds of painful, dreadful minutes tick by. You know you are dying but that doesn't make things any less painful for your gasping lungs. Your vision turns red, becomes a tunnel. Your eyes are bulging and your muscles are all fully flexed. It fades to black.

Torture as defined under international laws, is:

"any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person . . . by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity."

Waterboarding is considered an OK in America…