Friday, March 21, 2008
Snort Worthy Sentence
Today's Denver Post reprinted an anti-American, unsigned op-ed from the Salt Lake Tribune which said we Americans had no moral authority to judge other nations' conduct because of what we do.
Extraordinary rendition sounds really scary, but it is merely a quick form of extradition, that is, returning a criminal (or war prisoner of any sort) to his home country. OOOuhhh, very scary, kids. The sexual humiliation of prisoners in Abu Graib continues to be a tempest in a teapot. It happened, but that doesn't mean we do it routinely or it is our policy; indeed, we consider such a thing a crime and the perpetrators went to jail for their violations of the Army Code. Mere prisoners of war, of any sort, (as opposed to war criminals), being held for the duration of the conflict, haven't committed a crime, are never charged, and so don't need lawyers. (That moronic talking point is really getting old). But, of course, it is the end of the list, the crime of crimes, waterboarding, which is the real focus here. It is not torture if done for a matter of seconds, torture if done for a quarter hour or more.
But that's not what put a small part of my venti cappuccino (wet) up my nose. It was this gem: The practice [waterboarding], opposed by 43 retired generals and admirals who fear retribution against U.S. troops...
What? Fear retribution? They are not that silly, are they?
I hate to have to repeat my very brief history of the treatment of American prisoners of war in the last 90 years, but the short version is that we would be very happy if any of our enemies treated our captured guys as well as we treat theirs. It would be such an improvement. Except for some Luftwaffe Stalags, we have not received Geneva Convention treatment since 1918 (funny when the Nazis are the relative good guys). The stories from WWII in the Pacific, from the Korean War and from the Viet Nam War about American prisoners of war are heartbreaking tales of immense suffering. John McCain knows real torture first hand (and he's become hypersensitive as a result). If all that's too ancient history for the handful of naive generals and admirals (ret.) complaining, let's move directly to Gulf War II.
Here's what's happened to just the last 8 guys captured in Iraq:
Private Kristian Menchaca and Private Thomas Tucker (pictured here) were captured in June, 2006. They were hacked to death, their eyes were gouged out and, post mortem, they were dragged behind a vehicle and one of them had his head chopped off.
Spec. Alex Jimenez. Private Byron Fouty and Pfc. Joseph Anzack were captured May 12, 2007. A tape was released saying Jimenez and Fouty were later executed and their bodies buried. Anzack was certainly executed (two in the head, one in the chest) and found floating in the Euphrates.
On January 20, 2007, 1st Lt. Jacob Fritz, Spc. Johnathan Chism, and Pfc. Shawn Falter, were captured and shortly afterwards executed. Their bodies were recovered.
The blame America firsters responsible for this op-ed suffer from a defect of vision as old as human vision. In alio pediculum, in te ricinum non vides.
Oh, and I'm also getting a little sick of this more recent talking point: Japanese soldiers who used the technique during World War II were tried and convicted as war criminals.
No they weren't, at least not just for waterboarding. The Japanese war criminals we convicted did just what the Jihadists have been doing to our guys, whom they capture in Iraq, that is, shooting them well after the surrender, hacking them to death, gouging their eyes out and cutting their heads off, that is, real war crimes.
Of the U.S. actions condemned by the United Nations Committee on Torture and civil liberties organizations - extraordinary rendition, sexual humiliation of prisoners, detaining terrorist suspects without formal charges or legal representation - waterboarding is perhaps the most heinous.
Extraordinary rendition sounds really scary, but it is merely a quick form of extradition, that is, returning a criminal (or war prisoner of any sort) to his home country. OOOuhhh, very scary, kids. The sexual humiliation of prisoners in Abu Graib continues to be a tempest in a teapot. It happened, but that doesn't mean we do it routinely or it is our policy; indeed, we consider such a thing a crime and the perpetrators went to jail for their violations of the Army Code. Mere prisoners of war, of any sort, (as opposed to war criminals), being held for the duration of the conflict, haven't committed a crime, are never charged, and so don't need lawyers. (That moronic talking point is really getting old). But, of course, it is the end of the list, the crime of crimes, waterboarding, which is the real focus here. It is not torture if done for a matter of seconds, torture if done for a quarter hour or more.
But that's not what put a small part of my venti cappuccino (wet) up my nose. It was this gem: The practice [waterboarding], opposed by 43 retired generals and admirals who fear retribution against U.S. troops...
What? Fear retribution? They are not that silly, are they?
I hate to have to repeat my very brief history of the treatment of American prisoners of war in the last 90 years, but the short version is that we would be very happy if any of our enemies treated our captured guys as well as we treat theirs. It would be such an improvement. Except for some Luftwaffe Stalags, we have not received Geneva Convention treatment since 1918 (funny when the Nazis are the relative good guys). The stories from WWII in the Pacific, from the Korean War and from the Viet Nam War about American prisoners of war are heartbreaking tales of immense suffering. John McCain knows real torture first hand (and he's become hypersensitive as a result). If all that's too ancient history for the handful of naive generals and admirals (ret.) complaining, let's move directly to Gulf War II.
Here's what's happened to just the last 8 guys captured in Iraq:
Private Kristian Menchaca and Private Thomas Tucker (pictured here) were captured in June, 2006. They were hacked to death, their eyes were gouged out and, post mortem, they were dragged behind a vehicle and one of them had his head chopped off.
Spec. Alex Jimenez. Private Byron Fouty and Pfc. Joseph Anzack were captured May 12, 2007. A tape was released saying Jimenez and Fouty were later executed and their bodies buried. Anzack was certainly executed (two in the head, one in the chest) and found floating in the Euphrates.
On January 20, 2007, 1st Lt. Jacob Fritz, Spc. Johnathan Chism, and Pfc. Shawn Falter, were captured and shortly afterwards executed. Their bodies were recovered.
A half minute of simulated drowning is beginning to sound like a day at the beach in comparison to the illegal treatments our soldiers, actual prisoners of war, are actually getting.
Our guys are going to be really tortured, not just sexually humiliated; not subjected to simulated drowning, really murdered. This is what will happen no matter what we do to them. Our enemies are black hearted, illegal combatants. Only a fool would worry that our side will be treated worse if we don't treat them better, because our guys, once taken prisoner, can't be treated any worse.The blame America firsters responsible for this op-ed suffer from a defect of vision as old as human vision. In alio pediculum, in te ricinum non vides.
Oh, and I'm also getting a little sick of this more recent talking point: Japanese soldiers who used the technique during World War II were tried and convicted as war criminals.
No they weren't, at least not just for waterboarding. The Japanese war criminals we convicted did just what the Jihadists have been doing to our guys, whom they capture in Iraq, that is, shooting them well after the surrender, hacking them to death, gouging their eyes out and cutting their heads off, that is, real war crimes.
Labels: Gulf War II; Blame America First
