Conservative radio host gets waterboarded, lasts six seconds

[Civil War Man]

Even if he had held is breath, doesn't a correctly performed waterboarding induce a reflex action that causes someone to feel as though they're drowning regardless?

I don't know, but if holding your breath was enough to withstand it, I imagine that the people doing the torturing would have no problem forcing the victim to exhale. A strong blow to the gut would probably be enough for that.

[The Spartan]

Even if he had held is breath, doesn't a correctly performed waterboarding induce a reflex action that causes someone to feel as though they're drowning regardless?

I don't know, but if holding your breath was enough to withstand it, I imagine that the people doing the torturing would have no problem forcing the victim to exhale. A strong blow to the gut would probably be enough for that.

That might be true more generally, but I was thinking in this specific instance.

[Darth Wong]

If he was planning to hold his breath with the assistance of a "torturer" who warns him exactly when he'll start and how long it will last, then he was being a dishonest fuckwit who had no intention of finding out what waterboarding really feels like.

His plan was an elaborate ruse: he would pretend to get waterboarded and then laugh it off and run around saying that it's no big deal. Only it didn't work: the guy jumped the gun, he wasn't prepared, and he breathed some water. So he actually experienced waterboarding, and was shocked to discover that yes, it really sucks to be waterboarded.

It's hard to feel sympathy for the little shit. If his plan worked properly, he would be running around right now laughing at all the people who say it's torture and telling them that they're a bunch of pansies. And I also have to take exception to the people who are trying to laud him by saying that at least he had the guts to put his money where his mouth was. In point of fact, he did not: he was planning a sham waterboarding where no water actually went into him, only it didn't work.

[Edi]

The guy doing the waterboarding to him probably guessed that he was going to try something like that and preempted it. It's what I'd expect from someone like Mancow and I'd take steps to prevent such a sham.

[FSTargetDrone]

It doesn't even look like 5 or 6 seconds of sustained water in his mouth. The man with the pitcher pours a fair amount of it on Mancow's chin towards the end of the experiment.

In any case, if this is all it took for this guy to want to quit, imagine a real situation where the victim is probably bound or otherwise restrained during the course of the procedure. It doesn't even need to involve any sort of other physical involvement by those administering the waterboarding to force the victim to take a breath. They can just have him on his back and need not even touch him again other than to hold the cloth in place or whatever. Eventually the victim is going to have to breathe, even if he is able to hold his breath longer than a minute or so. They can keep pouring more and more water without needing to stop, whether they have multiple containers ready or even a low pressure stream of water from a hose.