HAMSTRUNG BY POLITICAL CORRECTNESS

Philadelphia Daily News ^ | 5/20/2004 | Michael Smerconish

[wjersey]

THOSE WHO strung up the charred remains of Americans on that bridge in Fallujah, and those who know the identity of the perpetrators, must be ecstatic.

That's because in the aftermath of the actions of seven idiots out of 135,000 troops, the U.S. has announced an overhaul of its interrogation methods - in wartime! I'm picturing quiche and a warm blanket instead of a rubber hose and a stack of phone books. (But there are plenty of people in this country who would be only too happy to torture some domestic miscreants, like cigarette smokers.)

And people wonder why it feels like we're losing the war against terrorism?

It's obvious: We're wearing boxing gloves in a street fight.

That's the only way to explain all of the self-flagellation and kvetching that's going on this in this country right now over the Iraqi prison abuse.

Think about it. Congressional inquiries. Televised hearings. Courts-martial. Editorials calling for the ouster of the secretary of defense.

Enough.

Now, don't get me wrong.

Those who embarrassed us and committed these indignities must be punished severely. (What in the world were they thinking?) But that is indeed happening, and the longer we keep this story on Page 1, equating their conduct with that of those who decapitated Nick Berg, the longer we delay victory over terrorism.

In the aftermath of Nick Berg's beheading, we need to re-focus - because while we wring our hands, these crazy bastards are staying up nights planning whose head they will cut off next.

There is no logic, no rationality to the enemy. They aren't like us. Our rules don't apply to them.

And we sure can't evaluate them through glasses fogged by a sof world full of Suburbans, flat screens, mocha java and trips to Home Depot.

They're building bombs and strapping on suicide belts. We're philosophizing about peace, love and understanding.

Consider that 19 look-alikes hijacked four airplanes on 9/11, and yet we have a Department of Transportation befuddled at the notion that it should be looking for future terrorists who resemble the last ones.

Or the never-ending complaints about the Librarian Act... uh, I mean the Patriot Act. (As former Attorney General Ed Meese told me, if you want to shut up a Patriot Act critic, just ask her to give you a specific example of its abuse.)

And how about those derailed efforts to fight terrorism by thinking outside the box?

Remember the attempts of John Poindexter to establish a Web-based futures trading market where experts could bet on the prospects of a terror attack? The point was that the collective consciousness of experts could be an effective intelligence-gathering technique.

Or what about his desire to expand the database we use to hunt down terrorists? What happened? The plans got scrapped, and he got his walking papers because his past association with Ollie North was too politically incorrect for the war on terror.

Thinking of all this brings to mind my favorite quote about the world in which we now live, even though it's a half-century old. According to Vanity Fair, in 1955, the Israeli philosopher Yishavayahu Leibowitz complained in a letter to David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first prime minister, about innocent Palestinians killed in Israeli operations.

"I received your letter and I do not agree with you," Ben-Gurion replied. "Were all the human ideals to be given to me on the one hand and Israeli security on the other, I would choose Israeli security because while it is good that there be a world full of peace, fraternity, justice and honesty, it is even more important that we be in it."

Mazel tov to that.

[RightOnlinesWife]

"They aren't like us. Our rules don't apply to them."

BINGO! (bump)

[Peach]

Great editorial, and so true, unfortunately.

[Piquaboy]

Has a war ever been won by being politicaly correct? Was it PC to drop the big ones on Japan?

[The Mayor]

They're building bombs and strapping on suicide belts. We're philosophizing about peace, love and understanding.

these people want to kill you..

[prognostigaator]

......."while it is good that there be a world full of peace, fraternity, justice and honesty, it is even more important that we be in it."

Mazel tov to that."

9/11 vs. Abu Ghraib prison

[unixfox]

I'm with you on this. There seems to be a small problem that the socialist media completely leaves out. That problem is, that most of these prisoners are not war combatants but TERRORISTS. Nothing in the Geneva convention mentions the handling of TERRORISTS. If they are indeed TERRORISTS then I say all bets are off.

We should be beheading these TERRORISTS, but no, we give them better treatment than we do some of our own citizens. We are too worried about their poor little feelings getting hurt or their bed not being soft enough and are they getting steak and lobster.

Instead of focusing on the real problems like ILLEGALS crossing our border, the U.N. stabbing us in the back and people that want to kill us, our priorities in this country seem to be gay marriage, anti-smoking laws, and a plethora of crap that has nothing to do with the security of this country.

And I haven't even had my first cup of coffee yet this morning!!

[TomGuy]

We have the most awesome arsenal of firepower the world has ever seen. Yet, bands of 7th Century thugs cause havoc because, rather than use the firepower, we use restraint--and count the bodies of our dead.

The WoT has turned PC. We cannot win a PC war. We have GENERALs being pulled out of the front lines to testify before Congress about a dozen malcontents who did things like putting panties on some prisoners' heads.

The prison guards are issued rubber bullets to guard some of the worst of the worst al-Qaeda. Guards can no longer hood prisoners.

Even at the most recent court martial of one of the guards, the 7 or so Arab press were invited while the American media were not allowed to attendance.

[philosofy123]

If the Abu Ghraib scandal took place in a no-election year, it would have never become front page news. On the net, as you know there are thousands of things happening around the world that are worthy of front page news more than the Abu Ghraib. However, 50% of America is Democrats, and all of them want Bush out. The liberal media wants Bush out; the rest of the world wants Bush out. Therefore, any news that can tarnish bush AUTOMATICALLY becomes first page news. To prove my point, look back when we started the Iraq war we had almost 100% support of the Democrats in Congress. Many mishaps in the invasion days took place without any mention from the “imbedded” journalists. We had no outcry from the left then. It was Dr. Howard Dean who is not a member of Congress, who started to politicize the war for his election reasons.

Rumsfeld knows of that abuse six month ago, and he was able to bottle it. It has Sy Hirsch, who went public with this damaging information in the New Yorker. Guess what party Sy Hirsch is belongs to? DEMON-RAT!

[Condor51]

"Has a war ever been won by being politically correct?"

Yes of course. Don't you remenber...
During the Revolutionary War, our troops wore bright colored uniforms, marched is straight lines and never fired at opposing force commanders and followed the 'rules of war' - while the ENEMY, didn't wear uniforms, fought mostly in small groups, hid in the forest, fired from behind trees & bushes, shot at Generals and THEN ran away. They didn't follow the 'rules of war', those rats fought unconventionally!

Wait.... I'm sorry I have that backward. It was US who fought 'unconventionally'. Silly me.

(sarcasm and no offense meant)

[Piquaboy]

That was a goodun. Thanks

[Condor51]

Thanks,

But everyone seems to forget¹ how we fought during the Revolution and that we² beat the most powerful military in the world at the time by NOT following the 'rules of war'.

1 - Of course our history isn't being taught any more so that's expected.
2 - PLEASE, Nobody mention the French ok. As they didn't commit to fully back us until our victory over the Brits was pretty much assured. (They were always weasels)

[Piranha]

"Were all the human ideals to be given to me on the one hand and Israeli security on the other, I would choose Israeli security because while it is good that there be a world full of peace, fraternity, justice and honesty, it is even more important that we be in it."

Never saw that before. It's a keeper. Thanks.