It is not the first time the American People have looked at their
Congress and wondered how the system works. As several local
citizens were overheard complaining in the local coffee
house, "Those people in D.C. are just plain Nuts!" Boy, on
that we can agree!
The issue at
debate centers around the continued incompetence of our elected
representatives when it comes to differentiating between war and law
enforcement. As Brian Darling 1 points out in
a recent article found on the Fox News site, Congress is trying to
provide legal rights to terrorists -- as if Congress was attempting to
legislate law enforcement rather than fighting the war. All this
while terrorists don't give a rat's ass about anyone's rights and
prefer simply to behead anyone they capture. Oh, I know, just
because the other guy has no moral scruples doesn't mean we have to
completely lose our own. That doesn't mean however that we have
to be downright stupid while we are upholding our principles.
Come to think of it, that's what Congress is doing -- being downright
stupid.
Here's the deal. When you are using your soldiers to uphold a
nation trying to become a democratic nation like we are doing in Iraq,
or sending your special forces guys into areas where they will be shot
on sight if caught, or your soldiers are clearing out a nest of
terrorists anywhere in the world, you are not playing cops and
robbers. There is a really big difference. If you can't
understand that, you shouldn't be in a position of responsibility in
our government. Yet, there it is. We have Congressmen and
Congresswomen who think terrorists are just confused and mixed up
criminals who deserve their day in court. Bull!
We are not sending our soldiers clear around the world to arrest
someone for stealing a car! This is called War, Senator.
Our guys are not being shot at by idiots with AK's in downtown L.A.
Congressman! This is a shooting war, damn it. Get a clue!
The whole objective in Iraq is to help that government keep a lid on
things while they hammer out how to make their country operate whilst
the terrorists fight to the death to prevent a democratic state from
being born and surviving in the Middle East. Even a construction
worker in Iowa (no offense!) can figure this one out. The
terrorists see Iraq' s Democracy as a huge threat to their way of life.
Why else are they so focused in Iraq? Terrorists in the
Middle East enjoy the freedom offered to them by the support of Muslims
who fear them and governments who say they do not condone them out of
one side of their mouth while quietly congratulating them out the
other.
Understand this. We have no friends in the Middle East except
perhaps Israel. Saudi Arabia is not much of a friend if at all,
and the other countries are like Qatar -- friendly only as long as it
suits them, and don't offer much help in any case.
The point here is that trying to give a Middle Eastern terrorist rights
to a lawyer and the ability to see classified evidence is
ludicrous. Since when do prisoners of war get trials? I
don't remember my father talking about American soldiers on trial
during WWII. Oh the Nazi war criminals went on trial after the
war...they were brought before a military tribunal specifically for
that purpose. That trial seemed to work to good purpose.
And I don't remember reading that the U.S. was forced to provide
classified evidence to those on trial. And besides it occurred
AFTER the war and focused on War Crimes. It was a War Crimes
trial.
But even if you don't want to use WWII as a precedent, lets look at
today's reality. Prisoners of war have certain rights under the
Geneva Convention. One of them is to be repatriated back to the
country of origin when the war is over. When will the War on
Terror be over? There's a good question without a ready
answer. So do we continue to hold Prisoners of War forever?
Another part of this issue is the Geneva Conventions. In the
final decades of the twentieth century, very liberal, anti-war
knuckleheads added a new article to the conventions that recognize Osama
Bin Laden and his crew as military combatants, despite the minor legal
issue that they don't wear uniforms, do not recognize the convention,
nor do they refrain from targeting non-combatants. In fact, the
new article refutes much of the first two's qualifications for those
who receive protection under the original articles. Talk about a
legal screwup! In fact, the terrorists we are fighting do not
meet any sort of convention for those fighting a war according to
International Law, except of course under this new article in the
Geneva Convention.
This article 3 has not been ratified by the U.S. for a very good
reason. It makes any terrorist a soldier and gives them rights that
they not only do not deserve, but protects them as human beings.
It makes shooting a terrorist aiming at you with a weapon a war crime.
Nice touch! You see, that is where its all gone wrong.
If you act totally uncivilized, if you behead prisoners, if you use
suicide bombers to do your dirty work and you put your gun caches and
your fighters in among innocents to use them as human shields, if you
put your gun caches and fighters in vehicles or buildings marked as
hospitals, if you wear street clothes to get up close and then whip out
your weapon and kill soldiers, you are not worthy of human
rights. You are scum, you are worthless. Why can't our
glorious "leaders" in Congress see that.
The problem as I see it, is that we elect "leaders" who are soft
hearted wimps. They whine about going to war and when we are
fighting it, they want to bring the soldiers home as soon as the
casualties start coming in. Never mind there are more people
killed in a month in the U.S. on the highways than are our soldiers
being killed in Iraq, never mind that there is a job to do over
there. Never mind that Bin Laden says it is World War III over
there. Congress is weak and wimpy and want us to bring them home.
Why? It's not like our so called friends in Europe are going to
be better friends if we do? It's not like Bin Laden, Hezbollah,
or Hamas are going to suddenly get nice if we withdraw back
into our shell inside our borders. This is the political
foolishness that one expects to hear from a few on the lunatic fringe, not the so
called leaders of our nation.
I believe this attitude has grown up as the anti-war radicals of the
sixties bore children. The idea of war is repugnant to them and
an unacceptable activity. Yet even in the days right after 9-11,
they still didn't understand that while we may WANT a world without
war, so far anyway, there SIMPLY IS NO SUCH THING. The reality is
that WAR IS HERE! And for the near future (read next hundred
years!), we have to be prepared to fight it here and abroad when the
opportunity presents itself, not wait for it to kill thousands more
Americans on our own soil.
Given that there is a world at war, and the war has come to us, then
why can't our Congress understand we need to go out there and fight
it. Winning is very important, even if it is a 90-10
proposition. We don't leave Iraq when its still hell over there
in a number of regions. My son is over there at a base where
incoming mortar fire doesn't quite reach deep into the base
proper. That won't keep the terrorists from getting bigger mortar
or even attack rockets. Where do they get these things?
From the Arab countries that claim they do not support or condone
terrorism. More Bull! When the next set of American
soldiers are killed by mortar or rocket fire into their base, Congress
will tsk, tsk and say bring them home. Ludicrous behavior from
those we elected to lead.
So when you go to the polls in November, remember who supports our
troops. Remember who wants to treat terrorists like they were
Seven-Eleven stick up artists. Do not forget the "slap their
hands" crowd and the "Bring them Home Now!" nuts. If you elect
them back into office or elect a replacement who is gutless, think of
what this country will look like in another decade. We'll be
hiding behind our borders, open borders at that, just waiting for the
next escalation of the War on America brought to you by those
misunderstood, poor little terrorists from the Middle East who deserve
to be treated like pimps in South Central L.A.
Damnit! Don't let this happen!
