Posted on 05/07/2004 12:23:41 PM PDT by Momaw Nadon
Thank God for Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and for his distinguished service to our country in this time of war.
We all want you to know that we enthusiastically support you and our troops!
I think those are things that people who think about those things are thinking about. And those are lawyers, and that type.
FReegards...MUD
Been out in the sticks for the last couple of days, and pretty much away from news reports. I can’t believe how many notches this prisoner abuse story has ratcheted up in just forty-eight hours time. When one isolates herself for a couple of days, it results in a brand new perspective on just how frantically busy the media and left-leaning members of congress are trying to create a topple-Bush issue.
Haven’t the time to read all of the no doubt insightful posts on the topic that have been written in the interim, so please forgive any (very probable, knowing the way people around here think) repetition, but I would like to offer a few of my own (entirely random) thoughts before calling it a day …
There are 130,000 American troops in Iraq. The perpetrators of this prison abuse may number possibly two dozen (?). One doesn’t need a calculator to figure out that the out-of-control soldiers represent roughly .02% of American troops on Iraqi soil. Statisticians would call that representation statistically insignificant. But apparently the leftists in the media and in congress never took a course in statistics.
Most of my friends are very good parents who have put the welfare of their children before everything else in their lives – and who have sought, more than anything else, to instill in them a sense of responsibility, self discipline, independent thought, faith, honesty, work ethic, and respect for others. And yet, in a few isolated cases, a child has turned out ‘bad’ – despite all of the positive, caring input that was involved in his nurturing. To heap criticism on those parents, and hold them forever responsible for their bad child, would be ludicrous. How much more ludicrous is it to hold our Secretary of Defense responsible for the indiscretions of .02% of the soldiers under his charge?
The war in Iraq involves many unique considerations. President Bush and Secretary Rumsfeld inherited a military/intelligence complex that had been severely weakened and restricted during the previous administration. The repercussions of intelligence weaknesses have become evident on many fronts. Military counterterrorism interrogation and detention procedures surely were not honed to perfection when Bush took office, and most probably had even been dealt a serious blow during those preceding eight years. As a result, I think we have reason to suspect that the training of prison guards, the standards, command policies, and the general prison/detention climate is probably not optimum. But in war you work with what you have.
Nowhere do I believe that the abusive prisoner treatment as recorded, photographed and videoed was ordered from above. Perhaps too much discretion or confusion is allowed in procedure. But I believe that 99.98% of our men/women in uniform would innately know that the abuse as inflicted on the prisoners in the photographs we have all seen was unacceptable. Unfortunately .02% did not.
To assert that the man at the top should take the fall for a couple of dozen of those in the ranks whose baser instincts led them to reject civilized behavior is ludicrous. But apparently the leftists in the media and in congress never took a course in simple logic.
Arriving home tonight, I heard snippets of the Rumsfeld hearings on the news. I heard leftists in congress painfully referring to the ‘anguish and discomfort’ they felt upon hearing the prison abuse reports and seeing the photographs and videos.
I don’t believe these hang-wringers. Not for a moment. I believe that the huge majority of leftists see these reports as a chance to get the President. And they have six full months until November – plenty of time to build this prison abuse crusade into a Watergate II. Their ‘anguish and discomfort’ was short lived, at best (completely non-existent, at worst) and was replaced by a rubbing of the hands together in a flash vision of the distinct possibility of enlisting the complicit media in an event that may eventually be dubbed Abu-Ghraib–gate (i.e., the partisan tarring and feathering of a President for an occurrence which, if perpetrated by one of their own kind, would have resulted in merely a yawn and an ‘I’ve got more important things with which to concern myself. Stop bothering me with insignificance.’)
Apparently many of these same leftists in the media and in congress were asleep during Waco, Ruby Ridge, Bosnia, the sale of sensitive missile and satellite technology to China, criminal perjury, obstruction of justice, Vince Foster’s murder, offenses against Kathleen Wiley and Juanita Broaddrick, Haiti, Monica-gate, Whitewater … I’ll stop here -- my typing fingers are wearing out.
When a democrat inhabits the White House, past Republican presidents, and Republican members of congress generally consider it un-statesmanlike -- not to mention unpatriotic, and a threat to our national unity and resolve -- to criticize the Commander in Chief during times of international crisis. When the shoe is on the other foot, past democrat presidents, and democrat members of congress are extremely vocal, and often place political and international considerations before those of American unity, resolve and success. Republicans would never have clamored for an Armed Services committee hearing the likes of which we heard today as a war on terrorism was being prosecuted. Republicans would have assumed that the investigations that are being carried out would be thorough, and that the perpetrators would be brought to justice. They would have remained unified behind the President, and would have voiced any major concerns only after the war wound down.
As they did (successfully) forty years ago, the growing population of leftists in our government is attempting to extract us from a war of which they disapprove by degrading and undermining those who are in leadership positions, both in the field and in Washington – and by using the complicit mainstream media to hammer their propaganda home.
Perhaps too much of the publicity and criticism is being heaped on Lynndie England. But, despite her age, she enjoys free will. I don’t know many twenty-one years olds who would not have innately known that her behavior was wrong – even if it only involved ‘posing’ for a camera. I can tell you that, at twenty-one, I myself would have risked dishonorable discharge or court martial before complying with any of what went on – even if some of it were posed. She (and all of the others involved – whether as pawns or decision-makers) needs to be severely disciplined. Even taking into account the limitations under which the troops are working, the crucial lack of personal character that resulted in this scandal will have severe ramifications on the war effort (the leftists among us will see to that), and on the morale of the rest of our troops. That is what troubles me far more than the mistreatment of the Iraqi prisoners.
Listening to taped portions of the Rumsfeld hearing tonight, my mind somehow conjured up a vision of a lion being interrogated by a swarm of self-righteous gnats. In some ways it’s unfortunate that we here in America don’t live by the law of the jungle. Here in America many of our ‘progressive’ definitions and legalisms require that the lion’s hands be tied, and the gnats be provided with microphones. And only those who can see through that surreal arrangement realize where the real courage and integrity lie.
~ joanie
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