This is going to be another rant (I feel the necessity of them more and more often listening to and reading the MSM - perhaps some bourbon will help).
But first, beloved readers, I want to state very clearly that this rant is directed at Moonbats in general, and not necessarily at the left, many of whom are articulate expounders of their point of view. Some who comment on this blog, my friend Jim Hitchcock comes to mind, has always been polite and for the most part, reasonable. There are others of the left that have not been. I don’t “ban” them because I do believe in free speech with a few exceptions on my blog explained here:Rules On Commenting. Having said all the above, don’t get offended (well, OK, you can if you wish, but only if the shoe fits - if it doesn’t fit, this was not aimed at you).
//Begin Rant//
The left is all a-twitter over the President’s speech, still calls from the moonbats to shut down gitmo, still claiming the Prez said Saddam was linked to 9/11. What the heck is the matter with these people. In the Washington Times there is an editorial by one James H. Warner who spent over 5 years in a North Vietnamese POW camp. His story tells of torture, his story tells Dandy Dick Durbin what a real concentration camp is like:
“On the first of June [1969…ed.], I was put in a cement box with a steel door, which sat out in the tropical summer sun. There, I was put in leg irons which were then wired to a small stool. In this position I could neither sit nor stand comfortably. Within 10 days, every muscle in my body was in pain (here began a shoulder injury which is now inoperable). The heat was almost beyond bearing. My feet had swollen, literally, to the size of footballs. I cannot describe the pain. When they took the leg irons off, they had to actually dig them out of the swollen flesh. It was five days before I could walk, because the weight of the leg irons on my Achilles tendons had paralyzed them and hamstrung me. I stayed in the box from June 1 until Nov. 10, 1969. While in the box, I lost at least 30 pounds. I would be curious to hear Mr. Durbin explain how this compares with having a female invade my private space, and whether a box in which the heat nearly killed me is the same as turning up the air conditioning.”
Did you get that Dick? FIVE friggin months in that box… FIVE, Count them you sorry excuse for a US Senator 1..2..3..4..5. Has ANYONE at Gitmo had a comparable experience? Even ONE? Your sorry excuse for an apology needs to become REAL, no wonder the American people don’t trust most Democrats in national elections. Hey Dick, whatcha gonna do when the good people of Ill. retire you?
Warner finishes his column with:
“The argument that detainees at Guantanamo are being treated badly is specious and silly. In the eyes of normal Americans, Democrats believe this argument because, as Jeanne Kirkpatrick said 20 years ago, they “always blame America first.” This contributes to the increasing suspicion, in red states, a problem that Democrats are aware of and are trying to counter, that Democrats cannot be trusted with our national security. Only the Democrats can change this perception, most recently articulated by White House adviser Karl Rove. The ball is in their court and I am certain there are steps that they can take to change this perception, but making silly arguments about imaginary bad treatment of enemy detainees is not a move in the right direction.”
Oh, but no, I’m not done… The moonbats demand an exit strategy. Right in the middle of a war. That’ll show the islamofascists how long they have to hang on won’t it? I discussed that below. The islamofascists are just salivating at the idea that we may give them an expected date of victory. No chance folks, the President said, and I quote:
“The terrorists do not understand America. The American people do not falter under threat, and we will not allow our future to be determined by car bombers and assassins.America and our friends are in a conflict that demands much of us.
We accept these burdens because we know what is at stake.
We fight today because Iraq now carries the hope of freedom in a vital region of the world, and the rise of democracy will be the ultimate triumph over radicalism and terror.
And we fight today because terrorists want to attack our country and kill our citizens, and Iraq is where they are making their stand.
So we’ll fight them there, we’ll fight them across the world, and we will stay in the fight until the fight is won.
America has done difficult work before. From our desperate fight for independence to the darkest days of a civil war to the hard-fought battles against tyranny in the 20th century, there were many chances to lose our heart, our nerve or our way.
But Americans have always held firm, because we have always believed in certain truths. We know that if evil is not confronted, it gains in strength and audacity and returns to strike us again. We know that when the work is hard, the proper response is not retreat, it is courage. And we know that this great ideal of human freedom entrusted to us in a special way and that the ideal of liberty is worth defending.”
Those that demand a timetable for withdrawal are either too naive to understand who is our enemy, or too stupid to understand that we must win this war. And, I can hear it now…”Then why don’t you join up Roper, you were in the Army.” Hey, I tried, I was in Berlin on 9/11 and as soon as I got home I called and offered my services…too old they said. Well, I’m not too old to tell you what I think and to stand up for what I believe in.
Still not done.
I’m sick of the complaints that Bush mislead the country and that the Downing Street Memos “PROVE” that. Well, according to Tony Blair (Oh, you know Tony don’t you? He’s the Prime Minister of England - The guy that LIVES at 10 Downing Street) According to the AP:
“LONDON - British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Wednesday the “Downing Street memos” paint a distorted picture, and he insisted that the Iraq war was not predetermined by the United States.“People say the decision was already taken. The decision was not already taken,” he said in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press.
Blair added he was “a bit astonished” at the intensive U.S. media coverage about the leaked memos, which suggested the White House viewed the war with Iraq as inevitable.
One last thing. I’m also sick of those who say that Saddam had no linkage to terrorists and/or Al Qaeda. the following are reproductions of PDF files.
Cutting and Running is not an option, only winning this war is viable. We have the troops, we have the means, we must have the will in order to succeed.
XPosted at GM’s Corner
Said GM @ 2:45 pm | Permalink
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, website trumps email, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>
Well, naturally, as long as we are not AS BAD as the North Vietnamese, then whatever we do is fine. I’m not saying they have been mistreated or that it should be shut down, I’m just saying the argument you use here isn’t very solid.
Comment by KraftyOne — 6/29/2005 @ 3:37 pm
That’s right, Kraft One, comparing incidents like reading Harry Potter to an insurgent who is covering his ears because it’s such torture compares to the POWs who were tortured in Vietnam.
You seriously need to get a clue. Perhaps a little Christina Aguilara music will help…
Comment by Cao — 6/29/2005 @ 5:08 pm
so if we’re trying the moral equivalence tact….to be as good as they are we have to cut off heads of our prisoners, right? or are they worse? i keep forgetting which groups of islamo-facists want women to vote, free elections, and freedom of religion…
please Krafty, educate us.
i learned nothing in six years in Europe and my family’s decade in the Middle East.
Comment by jcrue — 6/29/2005 @ 5:55 pm
Krafty, which part didn’t you understand? My rant was directed at Durbin (that part at least) because he made that exact morally equivalent comment… he said what happened at gitmo was akin to what happened in communist camps/siberia, concentration camps and the killing fields and he was DEAD FRIGGIN WRONG… We don’t use torture period, we don’t use illegal means period, we make those asshats uncomfortable, we lower or raise the temperature but no where near the extremes that are normal extremes outdoors in thier own countries, we yell at them we let doggies bark at them (do you know the muslim feelings about dogs?) but we feed them well, we allow them to pray, we give the bastards korans and better medical care than they have EVER had in their lives. In exchange for that, they lie about what happened to them (see their training manual) they fling feces, urine and semen at our troops, they taunt them with “when I get out of here I’m going to hunt you down, kill you and your whole family” and you want to treat them with kid gloves?
Sheesh man, what part of this is a war against an enemy that wants to KILL YOUR ASS, your parents, your children, your neighbors children etc., unless they submit to Islam, don’t you understand?
And brother, I understand you aren’t saying that they have been mistreated, Durbin did say that though. I understand you aren’t calling for the closure of the detention facility, kennedy and others ARE calling for that.
War is ugly, the purpose of soldiers is to KILL PEOPLE AND BREAK THINGS to destroy an enemy’s will to continue the fight. They still have will to fight…we aint’ there yet.
Comment by GM — 6/29/2005 @ 6:16 pm
Hmmm, guess I wasn’t done ranting after all.
Comment by GM — 6/29/2005 @ 6:18 pm
But guys, if we don’t treat them with the respect that they deserve as human beings then we are no better than the terrorists. If we simply welcome them in to our understanding arms of love, convert to Islam or submit to dhimmitude, then we can all get along. I mean, we don’t want to offend or make anybody uncomfortable here. It is not like our way of life is at stake or anything….
Comment by Duncan Avatar — 6/29/2005 @ 7:37 pm
GM - point taken that you were responding in kind to Durbin. I really don’t understand the hostility that I got from the rest of you though. All I was saying is that its not valid to say “As long as we’re not as bad as them, then whatever we do is okay.” Thats not a road that I would hope any American would want to walk down.
Comment by KraftyOne — 6/30/2005 @ 8:55 am
“That’s right, Kraft One, comparing incidents like reading Harry Potter to an insurgent who is covering his ears because it’s such torture compares to the POWs who were tortured in Vietnam.”
I don’t think Dick Durbin ever compared that to Vietnam.
What he mentioned was a series of things taken from an FBI report, including subjecting detainees to extreme heat and cold while chained to the floor for one thing…similar to what James H. Warner felt…perhaps not as long…but certainly nothing Americans should be proud of.
As far as an exit strategy…you don’t have to give a timetable. But come up with a strategy rather than simply throwing away American lives with no idea of when you can declare victory.
The U.S. developed an exit strategy for World War II within months of Pearl Harbor. And made it public. I’m not saying we should seek unconditional surrender (it’s impossible in this case) but the President should come up with some plan that actually lets the war end.
Comment by Randy Case — 6/30/2005 @ 12:39 pm
Randy, you couldn’t be more wrong vis-a-vis announcing an exit strategy as opposed to a time table or in comparing that to WWII.
In WWII, it was a war of state vs. state and announcing that unconditional surrender was our strategy was expected, the Germans and Japanese (and Italians for all I know) made the same kind of statements.
Iraq however is a different kind of war, a war in which states that sponsor terrorism are not directly involved in the terrorism. They use these poor delusional islamofascists to carry out their war. When Bush announced that our exit strategy was to beat the islamofascists and leave when Iraq was fully capable of defending it’self against them, that was your announced “plan that actually lets the war end.”
Chaining aggressive prisoners and turning down the heat or turing down the air conditioning is not either illegal nor is it immoral. It is probably not as effective as other methods, but the use of it does not place us in the same camp nor should it be something we should be ashamed of. I’m ashamed that we didn’t respond stronger when the Marine Barracks were blown up, when our embassys were blown up, when the USS Cole was attacked in what should have been obvious to anyone an “act of war” carried out by illegal belligerents.
Illegal, that is the key word here. They are in fact being treated far better than any prisoner in any other war and that includes WWII with German, Japanese and Italian POW’s held by us.
I just don’t understand this wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth that you guys do in terms of castigating how we handle these people. They are not being tortured. They fare much better than criminals do in many of our own jails and prisons. They continue to lie about thier captivity, they have brazenly sworn not to return to illegal combatant status and then turn right around and do so. They fling feces, urine, semen and saliva at our troops and threaten their lives repeatedly. They are not nice people and we do not need to be nice to them. But we are, in fact, being nice. Too nice, but that is my thinking, not the thinking of those in charge.
Comment by GM Roper — 6/30/2005 @ 12:58 pm