Navy SEAL Agrees with Trump on Waterboarding

During an interview with the FOX Business Network’s Stuart Varney, former Navy SEAL Carl Higbie discussed Donald Trump's stance on the use of waterboarding and torture to gain intelligence from terrorists.

Higbie said he wouldn’t have a problem torturing terrorists as long as Trump has his back as president.

“Right now we have these guys chopping your heads off putting them in shoe boxes and mailing them home. If we are unwilling to be as ruthless as our enemy, we have already lost this war,” he explained.

Higbie discussed why he believes torturing is ‘in line’ sometimes.

“The thing that the U.S. soldier is very good at, and we are trained very well to do it, is we separate who we are from what we do. And the American soldier in the interest of safety, they join the military to kill people, to kill bad guys, to save America. Torturing is in line with that, I believe. I think there are some limits to it and I don’t think it’s necessary for all things, but sometimes it is.”

He also argued that Americans were the only side abiding by morality clauses.

“When you have these morality clauses where we’re the only side abiding by any rules, we have one hand tied behind our back. You know, the American public is happy saying oh no we’re better than that, but the fact is if the American populist is better than that, we as soldiers on the battlefield are losing our lives because of that morality stature.”

As for how others in the military feel, Higbie said “A lot of us are on the same page as me.”

“There are some people who have a moral objection to it I’m sure. But guess what? The military might not be the place for them. The fact is we need to understand that these guys are willing to do anything—they’re burning people, they’re drowning people, they’re cutting people’s heads off,” Higbie stated.

“We need to have maybe not that type of lethality, but definitely something that makes them say hey, wait a minute. If I get captured I’m going to tell them everything because they’re going to waterboard me or torture me.”