Posted on 06/16/2005 4:19:13 PM PDT by katman
THE demands to shut down our Guantanamo lock-up for terrorists have nothing to do with human rights. They're about punishing America for our power and success.
From our ailing domestic left to overseas America haters, no one really cares about the fate of Mustapha the Murderer or Ahmed the Assassin. The lies told about Gitmo are meant to undercut U.S. foreign policy and embarrass America.
The Gitmo controversy is about many things, from jealousy of the United States and outrage that we refuse to fail, to residual anger that we won the Cold War and exploded the left's great fantasy of a dictatorship of the intellectuals. But the one thing the protests aren't about is human rights.
Except, of course, as a means to slam the United States.
Torture? Who and when? Koran abuse? I'd rather be a Koran in Gitmo than a Bible in Saudi Arabia. Illegal detentions? Suggest a better way to handle hardcore terrorists. Maltreatment? Spare me. The food the prisoners receive is better than what I had to eat in the Army.
Another thing: Would it be more humane to incarcerate the declared enemies of civilization in northern Alaska, rather than on a Caribbean beach?
Has the Bush administration made mistakes regarding Guantanamo? You bet. The biggest one was attempting to placate the critics. By launching a new investigation every time a terrorist had a toothache, our government played into the hands of its enemies.
The truth is that the terrorists and their defenders have something in common. It's not courage, which is one quality violent fanatics don't lack. It's that neither can be appeased.
Any concession only increases their appetites. The Clinton administration's reluctance to respond to terrorist strikes encouraged al Qaeda. If the Bush administration closed the Guantanamo facility, any alternative holding center would be attacked just as rabidly and dishonestly.
If we put our captives up at the Four Seasons, we'd be condemned because somebody smelled bacon at breakfast.
You can't negotiate with terrorists. And you cannot reason with ideologues — whether they're Islamist fanatics or pathetic old lefties fishing for a cause to give meaning to squandered lives. Terrorists, French and German neo-Stalinists, and our own democracy-hating intelligentsia aren't interested in facts. It's all about the comfort of belief.
Let's get this straight: Nothing we could do would appease those who feel a need for our country to fail. We must stop trying to satisfy them.
There's a military maxim that applies to all the nonsense about Gitmo: Don't let the entire battalion get bogged down by a sniper. By attempting to respond to the wild charges leveled by those who offer no solutions themselves — who have no interest in solutions — we've allowed anti-American basket cases from Harvard Yard to the German parliament to create an issue from nothing.
Oh, and thanks to the "mainstream" media for assuming that our country's always wrong.
There is a culture of torture in the world. Blessedly, America isn't part of it. When a few of our troops make mistakes, they're punished. Given the magnitude of our task and the unprecedented conditions we face, it's remarkable our errors have been so few.
What should enrage every decent citizen is that the real torturers — from Zimbabwe to China, from Syria to North Korea — get a pass from the political left. If terrorists behead defenseless captives on videotape, it's simply an expression of their culture. But if a handful of U.S. troops play an ugly round of Candid Camera, that's a new gulag.
As someone who takes human rights seriously, I'm appalled by the lack of sympathy the left feels toward the victims of any regime other than the Bush administration. Let's shout it to prisoners everywhere: If you're not harmed by an American, your suffering doesn't count.
The left's hypocrisy is immeasurable. The grandchildren of those who defended Stalin are mortified that Saddam Hussein will stand trial. By taking such irresponsible voices seriously, we grant our critics a strength they otherwise lack and simply help them keep their lies alive.
No matter what our country does, we will never please a global intelligentsia outraged that all their theories came to nothing. We can't satisfy al Qaeda, and we can't please those discontented souls who need to blame the United States for their personal inadequacies. It's time we stopped trying.
What should our nation's leaders say about Guantanamo and our treatment of captured terrorists? A lot less.
When comments are unavoidable, try this: "We're human. We make mistakes. We fix those mistakes. And we move on. Nothing will divert us from our mission of defeating terror and keeping our country safe."
Ralph Peters' next book, "New Glory, Expanding America's Global Supremacy," is due out in August.
we would have to take back our republic from those who wish to twist it into their own vision. This in itself could rip the country apart.
We have seen the response of those who have twisted our
republic into the socialist paradise it has almost become,
their rhetoric and vile hatefilled screeds fill the airwaves, the tactics of class warfare, and racial divisivness continue unabated no matter what "progress" they make, and their descent into madness continues with
every step we try to take to return our founding vision.
The option in this as in the war with Islam is that failure
means our extinction or subjugation. Failure is NOT an option.
We may have to destroy the liberals to save them ....
All joking aside. We .. as stewards of our republic ... need to shoulder that responsibility. I for one will no longer stand idly by as our republic is rotted from within. I will continue to fight the good fight where I can, just as I did in front of the effigy house in Sacramento. I will NOT back down from a liberal and I will preach the gosbel of conservatism to all who will listen. This I pledge
I will NOT back down from a liberal and I will preach the gosbel of conservatism to all who will listen.
This I pledge.
Amen Brother.
Great article.
It is about time.
And here you are!
This IS it!
Thanks for the ping!
BTTT
Thanks for the post.
Failure is NOT an option
Bingo!
I think that's an excellent comment, TET68! A worthy column contribution of your own!
bttt
What a load of bs. Mr. Peters examines the heights of hypocrisy with his last statement about mistakes.
If he is so interested in "fixing mistakes and moving on", then he certainly has to be disappointed in President Bush's lack of ability to do either.
Justifying human rights violations is ugly and is a major reason why no rational person can take this view seriously from the far right wing.
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