For years now there has been a debate about how children should be disciplined and the rights of the government to interfere in the parent, child relationship.

On one side we have seen children taken from their parents for delivering a simple whack to the bottom in public.  That in my view is going to far.  Most parents at one time or another employ this form of discipline and the children never seem to be the worse for ware because of it.  The only mistake these parents made was delivering the discipline in public where some busybody could witness it and call the authorities.  This not only puts a burden on the family that must face court and public scrutiny to get their child back but places more stress on already taxed police, court and child care services.

On the flip side of the coin we have seen children saved that had been caged like animals, badly beaten, molested, prostituted, sold into slavery and traded for drugs.  In these cases the courts, police and government did step in to protect the safety and welfare of the children involved and were right in doing so.

Now it seems that authorities need to be on the lookout for new forms of child abuse.  In Yelm, Washington, a suburb of Tacoma, a 27 year old soldier has been arrested for water boarding his 4 year old daughter.  Joshua Tabor became so enraged when his 4 year old girl could not properly recite her A,B,C’s that he used CIA. torture techniques he learned in the military as punishment.  He went on to confess that he chose water boarding as a punishment because his daughter already had a terror of water.

Tabor’s girlfriend confirmed this sad story when police arrived at the family home.  Though the unnamed girlfriend took no action to prevent this punishment and did not call to report it after Tabor left the home, she has yet to be charged with any crime.

The 4 year old girl was found by police cowering in a closet at the back of the residence.  When asked how she received the injuries that were obvious on her neck and back she simply replied: “daddy did it.”

Tabor has been confined to base pending charges.  His daughter has been taken into protective custody and police are looking into whether or not to press charges against Tabors girlfriend.

This is an all around sad story.  Our best wishes go out to the little girl involved and we hope she recovers soon from her injuries.  Sadly it will take her much longer to recover mentally than it will bodily from the harm that befell her from those who should have been showering her with love and kindness.

Unfortunately, as long as Rush, Beck, Fox and others keep telling the wingnut fringe out there that this is a good punishment and not torture, the more people will think it is okay to use it.  Even on a four year old child.

Watch to hear what the Young Turks have to say about this sad story.