Giving Aid & Comfort, Part 2.

Self | 05-10-04 | Daniel Ingham

[PsyOp]

Giving Aid & Comfort, Part 2.

What can one say? When it rains, it pours. And this last week, it has been mana from heaven for those who hate America.

If all the Jane Fonda’s, John Kerry’s, Osama Bin Laden’s and Saddam Hussein’s of the world had convened a meeting to devise a propaganda campaign to hurt America and her defenders, they could not, in their wildest dreams, have concocted anything as effective as Abu Ghraib Prison.

In a fit of blinding stupidity a handful of morons did what legions of Saddam Fehdayen could never do. They stained the reputation of the United States Army. They breathed life into tired lies. They provided un-imaginable aid to our enemies.

By humiliating and mistreating the prisoners under their care, these individuals (they ceased to be soldiers when they broke their oaths), placed every real soldier in Iraq in unnecessary danger. They forgot that the reason we strictly adhere to the Geneva Convention has little to do with compassion for the enemy, and everything to do with the survival of U.S. Soldiers unlucky enough to fall into enemy hands. Only by strict adherence to these rules ourselves do we retain the moral authority to demand reciprocal treatment for our POW’s.

Every new recruit learns about the Geneva Convention and The Laws of Land Warfare. Then they are taught the difference between lawful and un-lawful orders. They learn that not only can they disobey an unlawful order, but they are required to do so, and to report it to the appropriate chain-of-command at the earliest opportunity. They are even given little cards, with all these rules written down, so they can carry them around at all time and not forget them (and so you can give them to your captors should they claim ignorance of these rules).

Even John Kerry learned all this, (though he claims to have forgotten of it, before remembering it, after committing atrocities in Vietnam).

There is no excuse for this behavior. These individuals need to be punished, and to the maximum extent allowed.

Having said that...

Neither is there any excuse for the media feeding-frenzy over this story. The same papers, talking heads, and perplexed pundits that said we couldn’t handle the pictures of dead Americans hanging from bridge trusses in Falluja, have gleefully splashed pictures of Americans behaving badly across front pages and television screens all over the country. Media experts that censored 9/11 footage after the first painful weeks so we wouldn’t hate Muslims and start lynching them in the streets, busily fan the flames of hate for America in the muslim world (under the guise of “full disclosure”). The multi-culturalists who said that Islam should not be judged by the actions of a few “misguided” adherents of the “religion of peace”, now point to Abu Ghraib and say: “this is us.”

And John Kerry can once again blame it all on America’s “John Wayne culture.”

Neither is there any excuse for the language used and mischaracterizations of this incident. Atrocities! War Criminals! (Et tu Kerry?) Systemic abuse! Inhuman treatment! Cover-up! And so on down a rhetorical slippery-slope that has even included comparisons to the Nazi SS.

And now for a reality check.

If what happened at Abu Ghraib is an atrocity, and the idiots responsible are Nazi war criminals, then I suggest that the fine gentlemen in charge of the Hague and the World Court start and immediate investigation of America’s college campuses--where similar acts occur every year during fraternity and sports hazing rituals. These prisoners were humiliated. In a few cases psychologically abused. And one or two may have been roughed up physically.

These things are wrong and those responsible and need to be punished, but they are certainly not atrocities. Murdering innocent civilians, then burning, desecrating and dragging their bodies through the streets before hanging them from a bridge truss--that’s an atrocity. There is no moral equivalency here. Regardless of what Al Jazeera says.

But our press, which has gone from being the fourth branch of our government (or fourth estate if you’re French), to an enemy fifth column behind our own lines, has chosen to equate these very different actions. Stupid G.I.s, they insinuate, are no different than Nazi executioners manning gas chambers, or Uday and Qusay Hussein.

And let’s not forget how we all found out about this. Not through the keen noses and sleuthing abilities of Dan Rather, Peter Jennings or Catie Couric. No. We know of all this because one soldier remembered what he was taught at basic training (that which Kerry forgot), and reported the abuse to his chain of command; a chain of command that took immediate action and opened a criminal investigation, which it dutifully reported to the press back in January (some cover-up).

Because we hold ourselves to higher standards than our enemies do themselves, President Bush has apologized to the world for the actions of a few. SecDef Rumsfeld even came before a senate committee and accepted full-responsibility for something he had could not have prevented and would never have condoned. That’s what honorable leaders to when their subordinates misbehave.

In doing so, they proved that the system works. The Army policed it’s own and those at the top took responsibility. Just the way it is supposed to.

For some though, that is not enough. Some insist that Rumsfeld resign disgrace, and have even started specious articles of impeachment. Many in the media are salivating at the prospect, if not writing their own drafts of impeachment for use in the anticipated hearings. But, if this is the right thing to do, then why don’t they insist on Senator John Kerry’s impeachment? After all, he has admitted to taking part in real war crimes and of shirking his duty as a commissioned naval officer to stop them. A question to be pondered.

Meanwhile, in a little bomb factory somewhere in Iraq or Afghanistan, a terrorist is grinning ear to-ear. The fight may not be lost after all....

Of course, his next lesson may come when he learns that American soldiers are no longer in the mood to take prisoners... Our enemies and those that support them may not like the final “lessons learned” at Abu Ghraib.

[Interesting Times]

Well said.

[PsyOp]

Giving Aid & Comfort. [pt.1]

[PsyOp]

Ping to Pt.2.

[PsyOp]

Ping to you guys, too.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

"If all the Jane Fonda’s, John Kerry’s, Osama Bin Laden’s and Saddam Hussein’s of the world had convened a meeting to devise a propaganda campaign to hurt America and her defenders, they could not, in their wildest dreams, have concocted anything as effective as Abu Ghraib Prison."

Hey DU readers.
Bet you're tired of seeing this.
Tuff!

HANOI KERRY
has a Campaign Platform
Just like the old days!

"It is a fact that in the entire Vietnam War we did not lose one major battle.
We lost the war at home and at home John Kerry was the field general"
- Bob Elder, Swift Boat Veteran For Truth

"I do not believe John Kerry is fit to be commander in chief of the U.S. armed forces,"
said retired Rear Adm. Roy Hoffmann, chairman of the organization.
"This is not a political issue. It is a matter of honesty."

Hanoi Kerry at his "moment of glory."
What a piece of ******
The media WILL NOT mention this book.
I will!
The cover is a insult to Iwo Jima vets,
then it gets worse towards Viet Nam vets.
I was there the same time Hanoi Kerry was.
I served on the destroyer USS Corry DD-817 which supplied Swift Boats (PBR's)
and gave gunfire support in North AND South Viet Nam.
My ship may have even supplied Hanoi Kerry's boat.
I VOW I will do everything I LEGALLY can
to keep this traitor from being elected.
I owe it to those who gave their all.

[SAMWolf]

Even John Kerry learned all this, (though he claims to have forgotten of it, before remembering it, after committing atrocities in Vietnam).

And he betrays the troops and Country again by using them as political pawns to try to advance his own career.

[abner]

Another wonderful piece that sums the state of things up quite nicely.

[Travis McGee]

Thanks! Hearing Kennedy (the Hero of Chappaquidick) and Kerry (of the GI Baby Killer blood libel) center stage again is like a flashback nightmare.

The last time these two collaborated on war policy, the 'rats sold out our RVN allies, and left them to be conquered by the NVA. God help us (and the Iraqis) if Kerry is elected. Treason and backstabbing are in his blood.

[Dog Anchor]

CHAPPAQUIDICK TED............

[AZLiberty]

It's taken me over 30 years to fully understand Spiro Agnew's complaint about "nattering nabobs of negativism".

The same species that cost us victory in Vietnam is threatening a repetition in Iraq.

[Not now, Not ever!]

Bump, Bttt, as a bookmark

[Jack Black]

As I pointed out on an earlier thread because Kerry gave aid and comfort to the North Vietnamese he is Constitutionally Ineligible to be President under the 14th Ammendment.

This is a simple fact. If 50 freepers would quit spending 4 hours a day posting and get to work we could take him off the ballots after the convention. Talk about a nationwide lesson on the Constitution to rival the Clinton impeachment!

[Frank_2001]

Excellent post!

[PsyOp]

You might want to read this.

[PsyOp]

This is a simple fact. If 50 freepers would quit spending 4 hours a day posting and get to work we could take him off the ballots after the convention. Talk about a nationwide lesson on the Constitution to rival the Clinton impeachment!

I wish your were right. I wish the Supreme Court would step in on this. But unless the Navy actually presecutes him for what he says he did in Vietnam, or some federal judge gets enough backbone to prefer Treason charges against him--it'll never happen.

The best we can hope for is to educate enough people to keep him from becoming presiden; and, perhaps, see the voters of MA turn him out next time around. Anyway, I wrote these articles for that reason. Pass them along.

[BraveMan]

Bump for an interesting read . . .

[abner]

Howlin, can you use your extensive ping list on this one?

[Jack Black]

It doesn't require the Supreme Court. Refer to my posting. It only requires a single state Judge. That's the way it works in Washington state, at least.

[Skooz]

Dang. I can't find anything in this article with which I disagree.

Well stated.