Gitmo In, Gitmo Out?
| 17 June 2005 | John Armor
I first wrote about the Gitmo prison, four years ago. I laid out facts the MSM have yet to discover. Here’s another dose:
1. If Gitmo is closed, the prisoners, AND the complaints, will go elsewhere. (Is Senator Mel Martinez really that clueless?)
2. The Geneva Conventions do NOT apply to anyone captured in plain clothes, behind the lines, hiding among civilians (and also killing civilians). Anyone can read the Geneva Conventions for themselves. Fighters/soldiers must meet four conditions to be covered. Terrorists fail to meet at least three of those.
These are not “insurgents.” Insurgents are people who disagree with their group. Senators Olympia Snowe and Lincoln Chafee are insurgents. If you don’t want to say “terrorists,” use “assassins.” Google the word assassin and note its origins in Indian history. “Religious fanatics who murder civilians.” Sounds like a fit, to me.
What treatment do assassins/terrorists warrant, bare minimum? A drumhead trial, and prompt execution. Google Nathan Hale, or Major John Andre, to see why they got such trials and executions during the America Revolution.
3. Even if the prisoners at Gitmo WERE subject to the Geneva Convention, how long could they be held, and under what conditions?
Does the phrase “for the duration” mean anything to the press? Or to any Members of Congress, currently mouthing off on this subject? In every war ever fought – once most nations outgrew the idea of slaughtering all prisoners – the captured fighters were held until the war ended (unless ransomed out, like Chaucer, among others).
During World War II we had camps for prisoners many places, as needed. There was even a German POW camp in Arkansas. Don’t believe me? Google it. And NONE of those prisoners were entitled to lawyers, trials, etc.
The Americans who hit the beach at Iwo Jima, or Normandy, or anywhere else, did not go in with arrest warrants, and printed cards to read captured Japanese or Germans their Miranda rights. They went in with rifles and hand grenades. Their task was to kill as many of the enemy as possible, while preserving their own lives.
I repeat the words of General George Patton, that entirely too few Americans apparently have heard, or understood. “You do not win a war by dying for your country. You win by making some other b*stard die for his country.” While we are quoting famous generals for statements that any fool, even a reporter or a Congressman, should know, add this from William Tecumseh Sherman, “War is hell.”
4. What about the “lack of an exit plan?” Anyone who even asks this question is demonstrating a thundering ignorance of history. As World War II makes very clear, our exit strategy then was: Win the war. Take over the country. Destroy the war culture. Turn the nation into a stable, democratic one with a free market economy. That new nation, unlike the defeated one, will then become an ally of the US.
We never announced, in advance, when we would withdraw troops from Germany, nor how many troops we would take out. If we had done that, the Werewolves who were set up by the Nazis to continue fighting after the surrender, would have run to ground. They would have come out to fight after the date we had announced it would become easier.
Let me shorten that, so even the dumbest Congressman or the most biased reporter for the New York Times can understand it. A competent exit plan means: Win. Straighten things out. Come home.
Anyone who thinks he/she can predict exactly when the US military will be able to win and then come home, should practice by predicting next month’s stock prices. That way, if they are wrong, they will not be betting with the lives of Americans.
5. What is the cost of this war in our blood?
I’ve written about this before, so I’ll be brief here. Of the eleven major wars the US has fought including our Revolution, this is the LEAST bloody war measured by deaths per month. Don’t believe me? Google the statistics. Look it up. Then quit writing and/or believing cr*p about how costly this war is.
While you are at it, look up the statistics on how many young American men die, per thousand, in auto accidents, shootings, and other causes here in the US, as opposed to in Iraq. Use deaths per thousand. Try comparing Baghdad to Detroit, to use an example not entirely at random.
To press and politicians, I say: Research the facts. Tell the truth. Quit being dumb as a brick. Is that so d*mned difficult? |
