Posted on 06/13/2005 7:24:30 AM PDT by Congressman Billybob
I first wrote about the Gitmo prison, four years ago. I laid out facts the MSM have yet to discover. Here’s another dose:
1. If Gitmo is closed, the prisoners, AND the complaints, will go elsewhere. (Is Senator Mel Martinez really that clueless?)
2. The Geneva Conventions do NOT apply to anyone captured in plain clothes, behind the lines, hiding among civilians (and also killing civilians). Anyone can read the Geneva Conventions for themselves. Fighters/soldiers must meet four conditions to be covered. Terrorists fail to meet at least three of those.
These are not “insurgents.” Insurgents are people who disagree with their group. Senators Olympia Snowe and Lincoln Chafee are insurgents. If you don’t want to say “terrorists,” use “assassins.” Google the word assassin and note its origins in Indian history. “Religious fanatics who murder civilians.” Sounds like a fit, to me.
What treatment do assassins/terrorists warrant, bare minimum? A drumhead trial, and prompt execution. Google Nathan Hale, or Major John Andre, to see why they got such trials and executions during the America Revolution.
3. Even if the prisoners at Gitmo WERE subject to the Geneva Convention, how long could they be held, and under what conditions?
Does the phrase “for the duration” mean anything to the press? Or to any Members of Congress, currently mouthing off on this subject? In every war ever fought – once most nations outgrew the idea of slaughtering all prisoners – the captured fighters were held until the war ended (unless ransomed out, like Chaucer, among others).
During World War II we had camps for prisoners many places, as needed. There was even a German POW camp in Arkansas. Don’t believe me? Google it. And NONE of those prisoners were entitled to lawyers, trials, etc.
The Americans who hit the beach at Iwo Jima, or Normandy, or anywhere else, did not go in with arrest warrants, and printed cards to read captured Japanese or Germans their Miranda rights. They went in with rifles and hand grenades. Their task was to kill as many of the enemy as possible, while preserving their own lives.
I repeat the words of General George Patton, that entirely too few Americans apparently have heard, or understood. “You do not win a war by dying for your country. You win by making some other b*stard die for his country.” While we are quoting famous generals for statements that any fool, even a reporter or a Congressman, should know, add this from William Tecumseh Sherman, “War is hell.”
4. What about the “lack of an exit plan?” Anyone who even asks this question is demonstrating a thundering ignorance of history. As World War II makes very clear, our exit strategy then was: Win the war. Take over the country. Destroy the war culture. Turn the nation into a stable, democratic one with a free market economy. That new nation, unlike the defeated one, will then become an ally of the US.
We never announced, in advance, when we would withdraw troops from Germany, nor how many troops we would take out. If we had done that, the Werewolves who were set up by the Nazis to continue fighting after the surrender, would have run to ground. They would have come out to fight after the date we had announced it would become easier.
Let me shorten that, so even the dumbest Congressman or the most biased reporter for the New York Times can understand it. A competent exit plan means: Win. Straighten things out. Come home.
Anyone who thinks he/she can predict exactly when the US military will be able to win and then come home, should practice by predicting next month’s stock prices. That way, if they are wrong, they will not be betting with the lives of Americans.
5. What is the cost of this war in our blood?
I’ve written about this before, so I’ll be brief here. Of the eleven major wars the US has fought including our Revolution, this is the LEAST bloody war measured by deaths per month. Don’t believe me? Google the statistics. Look it up. Then quit writing and/or believing cr*p about how costly this war is.
While you are at it, look up the statistics on how many young American men die, per thousand, in auto accidents, shootings, and other causes here in the US, as opposed to in Iraq. Use deaths per thousand. Try comparing Baghdad to Detroit, to use an example not entirely at random.
To press and politicians, I say: Research the facts. Tell the truth. Quit being dumb as a brick. Is that so d*mned difficult?
About the Author: John Armor is a First Amendment attorney and author who lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. John_Armor@aya.yale.edu
Actually it has nothing to do with religion, muslim or otherwise. These are multiple groups of ignorant fanatics (not necessarily uneducated) who are being manipulated by some power crazy mulahs into believing that their lot in life has been caused by the 'unbelieving heathens'. Like some of our youthful (and not so youthful) college folks, they are easily manipulated into believing that America is the problem. If we don't get a hold of our education system - we 'gonna lose this country'!
I have a better suggestion. Each detainee should be put under house arrest under the daily care of an ACLU lawyer.
Hide the cutlery!
You should be familiar with In Re Quirin, the unanimous Supreme Court decision in 1942 which approved the trial, and execution if so ruled, of "illegal combatants" including two who claimed to be American citizens. And the "trials" you refer to for Hale and Andre were, exactly as I said in my column, "drumhead trials."
These are "military tribunals" on the battlefield. They have nothing to do with ordinary US civil or criminal courts.
You are reading the right sources. You are just not comprehending what you are reading.
John / Billybob
No, there is yet another class mentioned in the Conventions, that of saboteur or illegal combatant. Under the Conventions, this group has less protections than the other two and the Conventions make it quite clear that they can be held incommunicado for the duration so long as the holding country deems them a threat.
The Muslims!!!!!!!! They are the worst.
Well my friend, if the Muslim's are not controlled then you won't have to wonder just what they would do to us!!!!!!!!!!
Great article. I am passing it along with the length to your post.
Thanks for posting it.
once Bush showed weakness by saying "all options are being looked at", the weak hands started to fold. Cheney seems to have taken a tough stance, but its up to Bush to refute these lies from the left about Gitmo.
length = link
(How did I miss that?)
VP Cheney was just shown LIVE on FNC addressing the NPC and imo, made it clear as only our guy Cheney can, that Gitmo is not going anywhere.
Well you have a point, but ignorance and poverty (heavy on the ignorance) are the reasons these killers are persuaded to hate to the point where they will kill themselves for the cause. Our problem is that too many of our own people just don't understand that warfare is inherent in mankind and they had just better get used to it. There is no dialog here, nothing to talk about, they are fanatics and the world is going to have to hunt 'em down and kill 'em before they kill the world by initiating some kind of WMD exchange. Sorry for the rampage and to get back to your point, there are plenty of good Muslims as well as a bunch of hypocrits, Just like Christians - don't forget that these extream believers are living in the middle ages and like our 'lefty' freaks they really believe it.
The Muslim terrorist that hit on 9/11 were not poverty stricken and highly educated. Muslim's agenda is to convert the whole world to Islam, and if you don't you will be killed. I will admit that my family has an ax to grind with these extremist, but if we do not get the situation under control WW 3 is going to happen.
> Is that so d*mned difficult?
For them, Sir, I'd say it's impossible; their heads would explode.
Now, if we close Gitmo, we're gonna hafta put the inmates somehwere else. But where? Is Amnesty Int'l suggesting The Hokey Pokey?
Ya put your Gitmo in,
Ya put your Gitmo out,
Ya put your Gitmo in and ya shake it all about,
Ya do the Hokey Pokey and ya turn yourself around,
That's what it's all a-bout
All of life's a flippin' fairy tale for these numbskulls.
Must be the same thing you refer to.
Nice wordsmithing John.
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