Rush: Outrage Over Iraqi Prisoner Torture Comparable to Outrage Over Tailhook Scandal

Rush Limbaugh Show ^ | 5/4/2004 | myself

[Pyro7480]

As he was closing out his show today, Rush Limbaugh stated that the media hype over the Iraqi prisoner torture and one reporter's comparison of the torture to Saddam's regime (and the media's lack of outrage over it) is comparable to the media hype over Tailhook scandal, and the comparable lack of outrage of the storming of the Waco compound.

[JLS]

While I would not condone or recommend it, IF the US kept doing things like this, the Islamofascist might begin to respect the US more. They certainly respected Saddam who brutalized Iraqis far worse.

Now that is not our way, but I do not buy into this great harm to the US claim. Similarly, I did not scream for flattening Al Falluja just to get their respect. If we start behaving like uncivilized Islamics, they will have in one sense won.

However, kicking their butts in battle and being tough is what we need to do. Will someone occasionaly go over the line. Sure. People did in WWII, WWI, the Civil War the Revolutionary War etc. I think what I have seen so far is not terribly over the line, but not what we do never-the-less. So some soldiers will be sanctioned. That happens in every war too.

[swarthyguy]

Yes. I believe that someone high up should go.

[CatoRenasci]

There is another way of looking at this. Chancy, but possible. Since this is causing great rage among Muslims, maybe we should do more of it. For the express purpose of demonstrating our strength and contempt for their values and them. Since all they respect is strength, give it to 'em.

Parade the insurgents we capture naked and hooded, with pigs entrails drapped over them and let women soldiers herd them through the streets with cattle prods. Then find Iraqi criminals to sodomize them.

Nah, not the right approach. But it was a nice fantasy for about 30 seconds!

[TN4Liberty]

I agree with you. Based on what I have seen, prisoners were degraded, humiliated... i.e., attempts were made to "break" them. Isn't this exactly what we expect of our intelligence community? We don't torture for information, but is embarrassment better or worse than sleep deprivation confusion activities?

Either way, it is a long shot from throwing people in plastic shredders, isn't it?

Now, I do think that if these "humiliation" activities took place, they should have had a reason or a purpose. If some soldiers did it for kicks, that would be a different matter. But it is was part of a controlled method to demoralize a prisoner for purposes of getting information, can we say it was a bad thing?

This assumes, of course, that no physical torture occurred.

[cake_crumb]

Please explain why.

[Almondjoy]

Hmm are we sure these guys are terrorists? What if they are former soliders? What if they are guerillas? Of course we all know there are parts of Al-Qadea and other terrorist organizations there. But former Bathist party members that choose to shoot and kill only U.S. soliders are the resistance. Lest you forget the rules of war.

Regardless of the "humilation" they suffered this pales in comparison to what Saddam did... just not everyone has the common sense needed to apply truth to the situation.

However the "humilation" that they were put through is no excuse.. whether they were soften up.. whether they were told to do this.. it doesn't matter.. eveyrone invovled should pay the price for this idiotcy.

If we want to claim the moral absoulte in this war.. and believe me we all do.. then we have to act like it. Not resort to acting like animals.

[RightWhale]

While we might not have moral purity anymore, we have stated the rules we operate under. We will not nuke cities, we will not bomb and gas civilians except where they happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and we will not machine-gun prisoners before breakfast. For the time being.

[mudblood]

These people sympathized with Sadam, the rape rooms, the torture, etc. They were out to kill Americans. They were the enemy and these soldiers got information out of them. I could care less about the international outrage - I say "screw them" the way they say that to us every single day. We don't need them half as much as they need us, and its about damn time that Americans realized it. We should go there, take their oil, pay them for it and secure our interests. Imperialism made England, Spain and France the most powerful countries in the world. We should bring it back. Americans have been brainwashed by liberal education into thinking that America should be as poor, underfed and underprotected as Canida - screw Canida. The only thing good about Canida is their ginger ale. Seriously though, the only thing that will set things right in the world is stratification based upon might and wherewithal. This "everyone's the same!" crap is bad for everyone.
Rush was holding back.

[jerod]

The media is in an all out offensive to destroy Bush.

Their attacks have failed, so now they've decided to paint the American fighting soldiers as being nothing less than war criminals. Why are they doing this? They're attempting to make Iraq look like Vietnam.

The current war on Iraq is popular, and nothing they've done to date has changed that, so this is their new tactic. But if any of them were students of history, they'd realize that this sort of crap doesn't work.

As much as the media and the anti-war activist like John Kerry and Jane Fonda pine for the old protest days of Vietnam era, when they tried to turn the American people against Nixon by being critical of the War in Vietnam, they forget that their tactic didn't work then, and it won't work now.

Nixon wasn't voted out of office because of Vietnam. In fact, he won the largest vote percentage ever in 1972. The Watergate cover-up, which was minor infraction compared to Clinton's escapades, was the reason for Nixon's early departure. Yet these people pine for the good old days, and like most good old days, they really didn't exist.

A majority of Americans supported the war in Vietnam, and that didn't change much until the very end when America pulled out. So despite the media's believe that their anti-war attitude during Vietnam resulted in the end of that war, and the end of Nixon. They're just plain wrong.

This will do one thing for the media, and one thing only. It will make their viewer ship go down even more.

[MACVSOG68]

If you think it's immoral to execute terrorists - we're not talking about innocent Iraqi civilians here - in the middle of a war, then you're part of the problem.

Then I accept responsibility for being "part of the problem". I assume you have excellent inside information that they are proven terrorists, were given a trial, and legally executed. My hat's off to you for your in depth analysis.

OTOH, if you accept any prisoner killing by guards, then I suggest you are part of a much larger problem, far more damaging to our credibility and our place as a moral leader in the world. If you can accept as moral, those pictures all over the news, the video of a chopper using civilians for target practice, and now possible prisoner torture and homicide, then the word "moral" means something very different to each of us.

I'm not judging any soldier until I see the evidence, but anyone guilty of torturing or murdering a prisoner deserves the most severe punishment legally available. Those examples do not represent the military I know and love.

[pete anderson]

Our Great-Great-Great Grandchildren will paying for the abuses of the Iraqi prisoners when they patrol the streets of Middle Eastern nations well into the next century. The people of Islam have a very long memory.

[mudblood]

"We don't torture for information, but is embarrassment better or worse than sleep deprivation confusion activities?"

We should torture. And embarassment is great as a "we're going to do this if you don't" kind of method. Sleep deprevation is what you do when the prisoners are too secure in their sexuality to be humiliated.

[CatoRenasci]

The people of Islam have a very long memory.

Only if they're alive.

The people of Islam have a very long memory.

And America doesn't remember the "shores of Tripoli" and "Millions for defense, not one cent for tribute!"?

[Born Conservative]

[mudblood]

Ugh...Canida, not Canida...ugh...*blush*

[mudblood]

...I give up...

[pete anderson]

Waco, Ruby Ridge and Tail hook did not impact a population that has a thousand year long memory.

[excalibur1701]

I can't help to think, how different things may be, if WW2 was so scrutinized by the liberal press, as the Iraq war is. I seriously doubt we would have won that war. In fact, I think our current media would have made us feel guilty if we had won the war.

[TwoSue]

That's what I keep telling my husband.

[swarthyguy]

Command responsibility. Being in charge. Knowing what's going on.

Ignorance is not an excuse.

Allowing this to happen and being absolutely detrimental to the US.

Failing the CIC.