Kumbya Detainees

Lindsey Graham and John McCain are delusional. Their position on the terror detainees is that if we don’t accord them the privileges specified under the Geneva Convention protocols that we are endangering our own soldiers if and when they are captured. What do they mean? Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, North Korea, Japan, China, Vietnam, any African country are not signatories to this treaty. Graham and McCain are worried that those nations that are signatories might change their attitude towards the treaty terms if we, in violation of the treaty, fail to accord these murderers the status of soldiers.

John McCain was tortured by the North Vietnamese, legitimately according to them as they were not bound by the Geneva Convention protocols. The view that somehow the United States must behave in a manner that is not specified by the treaty on the grounds that we are somehow morally superior is pure fantasy. It is not a vote getter, which is what McCain and Graham are hoping for. Do they think that American or NATO prisoners will be beheaded in a humane manner? Once again this is an American failure to acknowledge reality.

Yesterday’s revelation that an opportunity was lost to eliminate part of the Taliban leadership was justified by an Army spokesperson “…if we were in an all out war demanding unconditional surrender we would bomb first and sort out later.”  According to President Bush we are in a battle for survival. Isn’t that the definition of an “all out war”?  There is no reason to put hot pinchers to the skin of detainees, nor use electrical genital stimulation, or pump water down their throats, but a little sensory deprivation, intimidation, or psychological prodding is justified and should be used.

The so-called atrocities at Abu Ghraib were anything but, and were cynically used by Democrats and others to flog the United States. Ted “High Ground” Kennedy compared the US to Nazi Germany and the US military to the Gestapo; obviously Irish Whiskey has clouded his memory.

The United States is either in a war to the death or it isn’t. The Government should make up its mind and wage war effectively or quit.