2006 September 20 | The Right State

Chosing Sides in the War on Terror

I can nott believe there is still all of this hubbub over President Bush wanting to clarify the US position on the Geneva Convention. The elitists in the Democratic Party still believe our soldiers routinely torture terrorists at Gitmo and at Abu Gharib. They still have this belief that we can all just get along. That there is some misunderstanding between us. That there is something we did to make them mad and if we will just beg for forgiveness, the terrorists will leave us alone. This misguided thinking will continue to place Americans in danger. There are some who know what torture is really like. John McCain is an example. And yet how many Americans know that Vietnam was a signatory to the Geneva Convention. Even this did not protect our troops from torture. For an example of what true torture is, be sure to read this from Thomas Moe as he described how he was torture by the Vietnamese. This is how a signitory to the Geneva Convention treated our troops when this country was treating theirs much more humanely.

How can some of the more progressives in our midst even suggest we torture prisoners? The sophomoric pranks at Abu Gharib were not torture by any stretch of the imagination. Torture is what Tom Moe went through. Torture is what Nick Berg went through when his head was sawed off while he was still alive. Torture is not what the United States engages in.

President Bush is not interested in protecting US interrogators from prosecution when they violate the articles of the Geneva Convention. By his own admittion, he wants the meaning of the vague text of Article III to be clarified into what is meant by torture, thus giving our soldiers and interrogators some protection from prosecution and lawsuits. For some on the left, turning off the television set is an example of torture. Yelling, sleep deprivation, playing loud music, and reading aloud Harry Potter novels may be examples of torture. For those who believe these examples is torture, re-read what Tom Moe went through. That is torture.

I want to say this again, the US does not engage in torture. The Republicans who are delaying passage of the Geneva Convention clarification bill are blinded by some kind of flawed moral equivocation. John McCain of all people should know that there is a tremendous difference in how the US obtains information from the terrorists and how the terrorists gain information.

Bush says this language is vague, leaving intelligence agents in doubt about whether some of the harsher interrogation tactics they have employed to obtain vital information are legal. He has asked Congress to clarify the language. But McCain and his allies say Congress should not unilaterally set a definition, or else other nations with less respect for human rights may do the same — to the detriment of U.S. personnel in captivity.

Colin Powell is another one who has consistently harped on the idea of reciprocal treatment of our troops by other countries. Unfortunately, the US has been the only country to unswervingly stand by the Geneva Convention in the last several wars. BlackFive has his own response for General Powell which needs no help from me.

I was under the impression that Mr. Powell was an educated man, and that we could place some sort of weight on his opinion. But someone commenting on the relative likelihood that North Korea might torture and/or kill our POWs, ought to at least remember they have already done so. The Korean War was full of examples of massacres and torture and rendition of POWs to China for human experiments. For North Korea to redefine or clarify it’s position re. the Geneva Conventions would require it to start abiding by them. Powell’s sorry statement is simply a rehash of media jackal David Gregory’s little swipe at the President during his last press conference, except Gregory at least mentioned Iran in addition to North Korea. I am stunned at the level of intellectual detachment it takes to poke your nose into a serious national security discussion, and show how little you understand it by saying such a fundamentally ignorant thing. The only outrage or humiliation involved with Powell’s latest opposition to this administration has been to what is left of his reputation.

This is the bottom line, this country is at war with people who want to kill us any way they can. They want to destroy our way of life, our freedoms, and our religions. They want to turn the US into an Islamic country under Sharia law. The people we are fighting do not wear uniforms and they should not have any protection under the Geneva Convention. The Supreme Court really messed up when they declared that the terrorists have protections under the Geneva Convention when none exist. This country can ill afford to treat the terrorists with kid gloves, giving them the same legal protections we give American citizens. The Geneva Convention was never designed to be a suicide pact, ensuring that the terrorists have an unequal advantage in this long war. These people want to die for their cause while we want to live for ours. That is the big difference between our two cultures. Its time our Senators like John McCain and John Warner start looking out for rights of Americans to live in freedom and without fear rather than protecting what they see as the rights of terrorists. Its time to chose sides; these Senators are either with us or they are with the terrorists.

Tags: War by Chuck
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