Posted on 05/26/2004 1:29:32 PM PDT by Dr.Syn
Appropriate Compensation? by Daniel Sargis 26 May 2004 Donald Rumsfeld wants to provide "appropriate compensation" to Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib, even while the State Department prevents American POW's from pursuing remuneration from the Japanese government for abuses during World War II.
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Worried over his lowest approval ratings ever, President Bush asked Republicans to "keep the faith." And...worried about the international media orgy over the Abu Ghraib fiasco, Donald Rumsfeld offered his deepest apology to those Iraqis who were mistreated by members of U.S. armed forces. Rumsfeld also added that he (courtesy of the American taxpayer) wants to provide appropriate compensation to those detainees who suffered grievous and brutal abuse and cruelty at the hands of a few members of the U.S. military. This might sound reasonable except that.... Americans taken prisoner by the Japanese during World War II were brutalized and enslaved by their captors....in concert with Corporate Japan. Many of those who survived (and almost half of them did not) have been seeking, without success, Appropriate Compensation from the Japanese companies who so graciously profited from the slave labor of American POWs. Orrin Hatch informed the Senate that, many of these POWs were forced into slave labor for private Japanese steel mills and other private companies until the end of the war. During the war, over 27,465 Americans were captured and interned by the Japanese; tragically, only 16,000 made it home. These ex-POWs face a triad of resistance from the Japanese government, Japanese corporations and...the U.S. State Department! Thats right...the same U.S. government that is so eager to pee your money down an Iraqi drain of Appropriate Compensation actively plays an adversarial role in denying even a day in court for U.S. POWs who know the real meaning of the term abused. Where is the New York Times and its Upper West Side pathos when Americans are in need? As reported in the New York Times, Since last June, the military has paid more than $2.5 million in compensation claims in Iraq.... Since the end of World War II, the Japanese have paid zero to its American ex-slaves...not even an apology. However, the U.S. government, under the War Claims Act, has paid these tragic heroes an extraordinary $1.00 a day for missed meals and $1.50 per day for lost wages (for the period of their enslavement). The Americans in the Bataan Death March would have fared better as captured Taliban in GITMO! In 1999, ex-POW Lester Tenney filed a lawsuit for reparations against the Japanese Mitsui conglomerate. As reported by Parade Magazine, Mitsui was the owner of a coal mine 35 miles from Nagasaki that was so dangerous...Japanese miners refused to work in it. In 1942, Tenney became a Mitsui-owned slave in this mine. Again from Parade, When he was taken prisoner, Tenney weighed 185 pounds. When he was liberated in 1945, he weighed 97 pounds. Unlike the GITMO Taliban, Tenney did not receive warm showers, toiletries, water, clean clothes, blankets, regular, culturally appropriate meals, prayer mats and the right to practice their religion. From Parade, ...the U.S. government stepped in on behalf of the Japanese and...succeeded in getting them (the lawsuits) dismissed by Vaughn R. Walker, a federal judge in the Northern District of California...Judge Walker declared...that the fact that we had won the war was enough of a payoff. His exact words were: The immeasurable bounty of life for themselves [the POWs] and their posterity in a free society services the debt. By 2001, Iris Chang reasoned that the continued denial of justice for the remaining 5000 American survivors of Japanese enslavement resulted from the Bush administrations fear that it might interfere with gathering international support for the war on terrorism. First American ex-POWs are pawns in a game against the Soviets and now, they are sacrificed for Islamic extremists. Yet, the U.S. government is hell-bent to offer-up Appropriate Compensation to un-uniformed Iraqi prisoners. |
ZERO.
How about .223 to the head?
I hate our State Department.
give them $0.25 and a cup of coffee (American). That would be a lot more than I got.
Somebody has lost their mind , Give em crap and shove them in it. These folks werent there for parking tickets.
let's forward all thses replies to the prez!
president@whitehouse.gov
They get to keep the Black Bag as a parting gift
I think there's reefer smoke being piped through the airducts there.
Any number of leftist legal groups are no doubt already in pursuit of this particular ambulance.
It does not have to be a lot of money. $1,000 is a lot in that part of the world. It will undo some of the damage.
The Japanese never apologized to the Chinese and still there are many hard feelings. Perhaps there always will be after what the Japanese did in China but still an apology from Japan would help relations between the two peoples.
No illusions here that it will win over everyone but it can not hurt. It is not a lot of money if the sum is kept reasonable ($1,000)
Mine too?
your idea? Give them $1000?
I just had to send in an EXTRA $1038.58 to the IRS because I made a politician mad and some peon agent decided that a ruling that was made over 2 years ago was wrong, and he interpreted the rules differently. If I wanted to contest it, I could hire a lawyer - AFTER I paid it otherwise they would confiscate everything I own.
$1000 may not sound much to you or to many out there, but when you are 100% disabled and have to pull it out of what is left of a trashed IRA account, it is a hell of a lot of money!
Don't mention lawyers to me ... they caused this and they require another lawyer ($$$$) to fight a law that lawyer created to be interpreted by another lawyer and if you want to fight it it gets decided by a lawyer in robes.
I have a better idea for lawyers - something along the line of what Shakespeare is attributed to have suggested a few hundred years ago.
Do you want to recompense me for my permanent injuries from the Marine Corps - back in 69-70?
I'm afraid I am not of the means to make much of a difference in your financial situation but I will say Thank You, your service to this country is not lost on me.
About the lawyers, I agree. My advice is don't get one. The cost of the lawyer is worse than the ultimate judgement - represent yourself.
On the IRS, I'd say something but they are probably scanning this thread and I don't want them to look me up.
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