May 02, 2004

Bush, Arabs Disgusted Over Prisoner Abuse

Images of smiling U.S. military police humiliating Iraqi prisoners appeared in newspapers around the Middle East on Saturday, angering Arabs who accused the United States of only caring about the rights of Americans.

You'll probably think I'm hard-hearted, but I refuse to get upset about this.
The pix to me don't look too different from some college student's photos of "Spring Break" when they all got loaded on tequila down in Padre and drove to Mexico...of course, naked hijinx ensued.
Seriously, though, if this abuse by U.S. soldiers of Iraqi prisoners took place, it was wrong and the soldiers should receive the proper punishment under the UCMJ.
The funny thing was, this alleged abuse was under investigation some months ago and the military judicial disciplinary process had already begun.
As with all of these types of things, it's being driven from the Left: CBS (Motto: "We hated Reagan!"), "60 minutes" (Home of Andy "I hate Bush" Rooney) and everyone's fave, Human Rights Watch (who's watching America like a hawk, because the rest of the world's abuses don't interest them!).
And strange how the lion's share of the evidentiary pictures ended up on DemocratUnderground (or DUH.com as I call it).
We've got a candidate running for the Oval Office--J. F'in sKerry-- whose main claim to fame was his heading of a veterans' group against the Vietnam War after he got back from serving 4 whole months in that war.
In 1971, Lurch (Oops! I mean Sen. Ketchup) testified to Congress that our soldiers were "murderers, baby killers and habitual abusers of the rights" of the Vietnamese.
These "photos," along with the abuse of Iraqi POWs that is alleged, are an attempt to show the American people (and really, the rest of the world) that nothing has changed: that our soldiers are crude, coarse "animals."

For those native whiners who worry that the U.S. has lost the "moral highground" in the WOT because of this alleged abuse, I would say that it doesn't take anything at all to "inflame" the Arab Street or to make headlines of outrage in the Arab press--they're more than happy to do that anytime!
Of course, no mention from Al Jazeera and their ilk ever that this kind of abuse and far worse is SOP in the jails of their countries to their own countrymen by their own soldiers.
Or that some of this alleged brutality on the part of Americans might be partly "understandable" in light of the brutal way that the enemy have killed Americans (Daniel Pearl's beheading on video tape comes to mind, if not the coverage of the people jumping 100 stories to their deaths on 9/11 from the WTC), mutilated their dead bodies, or tortured our prisoners and hostages.
And lastly, where was the outrage in the Arab world when Saddam abused and murdered and put into mass graves not a dozen hooded guys, as here, but 800,000 to 2 million Iraqis, day after day for over 30 years?
If these charges are true, it's being dealt with, as it should be and it must be stressed that this abusive behavior was indulged in by a mere handful of "bad eggs" under a poor leader in our Army Reserve.
They in no way represent the other 99% of our troops who are good, decent and kind people who respect human rights and who abide by the Geneva Convention (and then some) in their treatment of enemy prisoners.
And of course, all the good things our soldiers are doing in Iraq seem to go unnoticed by not just the Arab press, but our own American (and Leftist) press, too.
There's something that should provoke real outrage and shame, but it won't.
To get a look at some of the good our Marines are doing over there and how you can contribute to help make wonderful things happen, visit Spirit of America's site and don't forget other Good Samaritan Soldiers like Chief Wiggles, either, who collected donations and distributed toys to Iraqi children while he was serving in Iraq (I think he's still doing it back here at home...)!
Whatever you do, don't let the Anti-war Left convince you that the real bad guys are our own Military!
This is Liberal Leftist propaganda designed to demoralize our morale both at home and at the Iraq front and meant also to purposefully incite the "Arab street" to anger (as if they needed any help!)--don't fall for it!
And not content to pick on just American soldiers, they're trying to say that the British soldiers have been abusing Iraqi prisoners, as well.
Once again, this is being driven in the U.K. by the Left-bent Daily Mirror, the employer of Peter Arnett and Robert Fisk. (Need I say more?)
Funnily enough, however, al-Beebera has the story that the photos showing this abuse "may not be genuine."
Ya think?

Our soldiers are not just a "band of brothers;" they're our brothers and sisters and husbands and wives and fathers and mothers and daughters and sons!
Let's give them the benefit of the doubt accordingly when they seemingly behave badly and send them all the love, support and help we can while they fight the good fight!