Nufsed.
On the one hand, it's interesting.
On the other hand it feels way too terrorist-friendly. And the east coast elites just cannot come to grips with the reasons why these people are held as unlawful combatants, not POW's.
What is so hard to grasp about this simple concept? Throughout hundreds of years of history, combatants who follow certain rules (like wearing a uniform) have been treated as POW's, while those who don't are treated as spies who can be executed. This makes sense to me, and it's obvious to me that the terrorists are more like spies than enemy soldiers. But the left simply cannot or will not see this -- their hate-Bush ideology has left them blind.
(NOTE: THIS IS A PARODY!)
A person wrote a letter to the White House complaining about the treatment of a captive taken during the Afghanistan war. Attached is a copy of a letter they received back:
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC
Dear Concerned Citizen:
Thank you for your recent letter roundly criticizing our treatment of the Taliban and Al Qaeda detainees currently being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. My administration takes these matters seriously, and your opinion was heard loud and clear here in Washington. You'll be pleased to learn that, thanks to the concerns of citizens like you, we are creating a new division of the Terrorist Retraining Program, to be called the "Liberals accept Responsibility for Killers" program, or LARK for short.
In accordance with the guidelines of this new program, we have decided to place one terrorist under your personal care. Your personal detainee has been selected and scheduled for transportation under heavily armed guard to your residence next Monday.
Ali Mohammed Ahmed bin Mahmud (you can just call him Ahmed) is to be cared for pursuant to the standards you Personally demanded in your letter of admonishment.
It will likely be necessary for you to hire some assistant caretakers. We will conduct weekly inspections to ensure that your standards of care for Ahmed are commensurate with those you so strongly recommended in your letter.
Ahmed's meal requirements are simple, but we strongly suggest serving meals that do not require utensils, particularly knives and forks. Also, these should be "one-handed" foods; Ahmed will not eat with his left hand since he uses it to wipe himself after purging his bowels(which he will do in your yard).
He generally bathes quarterly with the change of seasons, assuming that it rains, and he washes his clothes simultaneously. This should help with your water bill. Also, your new friend has a really bad case of body lice that hasn't been completely remedied.
Please heed the large orange notice attached to your detainee's cage:
"Does not play well with others."
Although Ahmed is sociopathic and extremely violent, we hope that your sensitivity to what you described as his "attitudinal problem" will help him overcome these character flaws. Perhaps you are correct in describing these problems as mere cultural differences. He will bite you, given the chance, but his rabies test came back negative so not to worry.
We understand that you plan to offer counseling and home schooling. Your adopted terrorist is extremely proficient in hand-to-hand combat and can extinguish human life with such simple items as a pencil or nail clipper. We do not suggest that you ask him to demonstrate these skills at your next yoga group. He is also expert at making a wide variety of explosive devices from common household products, so you may wish to keep those items locked up, unless (in your opinion) this might offend him.
Ahmed will not wish to interact with your wife or daughters (except sexually) since he views females as a subhuman form of property. However, he will be eager to assist with the education of your sons; have available for their use several copies of the Q'uran.
Oh - and rest assured he absolutely loves animals, especially cats and dogs. He prefers them roasted, but raw is fine, too, if they aren't more than 2 or 3 days dead.
Thanks again for your letter. We truly appreciate it when folks like you, who know so much, keep us informed of the proper way to do our job. We think this watching over each other's shoulder is such a good way for people to interact that we will be sending a team of federal officials with expertise in your line of work to your place of business soon, just to help you do your job better. Don't be concerned that they have the power to close your business, seize your property, and arrest you for any violation of the 4,850,206 laws, codes, regulations and rules that apply to your profession. They're really there just to make sure you're doing everything the proper way. That is what you wanted, right?
Well, thank you for this opportunity to interact with such a valued member of the citizenry. You take good care of Ahmed - and remember ...we'll be watching.
Cordially,
Your Buddy, Dubbya
From this thread: Liberals Accept Responsibility for Killers, AKA L.A.R.K. Program
As far as I am concerned, we are treating the prisoners at GITMO the SAME WAY we would treat high-risk psychiatric patients, for many of the same reasons.
NO one is being cruel.
As regardsthier "constitutional rights", they are not US citizens, so that does not apply.
Good post
Tia
According to the end of the article, this is the Ted Conover that wrote "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing."
Essentially, he took a corrections officer job to get material to write about, IIRC. It's an interesting book - not because of the conclusions he draws, but for the observations he makes while on the job.
If you ever want to read it, I'd suggest borrowing it from a library. It's interesting, but not $21.95 interesting.
Other books by him are "Whiteout: Lost in Aspen," "Coyotes: A Journey Through the Secret World of America's Illegal Aliens," and "Rolling Nowhere: A Young Man's Adventures Riding the Rails with America's Hoboes."
You can sort of get the general idea just from his book titles.
For instance, the Young Man's Adventures Riding the Rails sounds real good until you're 48 with rotting teeth and a liver that's about to crap out. That's when everyone wants the productive taxpayer to shell out for oral surgeons and organ transplants. Meanwhile, the productive taxpayer wasn't living the freewheeling where-the-wind-blows-me lifestyle or he wouldn't be able to get those things, etc.
But whatever. The books I've read tend to be interesting but he lacks a basic understanding of several things - lawful vs unlawful status of combatants included.
Nufsed.