Ortega and the water boarding torture
Water boarding is a famous torture method particularly effective thanks to the fact that the water, getting inside the respiratory system, creates a feeling of 'imminent death' that is a terrible challenge for the victim's mind.
'Water boarding' is currently forbidden by the international laws of war, together with other kind of tortures which create permanent psychological damage to those they are used on (water boarding victims can dream of going again through the torture even after many years that the real events took place).
In Year One, Trautman uses water boarding on Ortega because he has to 'have already been through' what could happen to him if he is captured.
During the sixties, there still was nothing similar to the idea of 'permanent psychological damage' and exaggerating during training was a common use.
The keyword to deepen the subject on the Internet is: “WATERBOARD TORTURE”.
A US soldier and a Vietnamese soldier torturing a Vietcong suspect, 1968.
