Obviously the so-called prison abuse scandal is in the forefront with the national media. Bet has an interesting roundup on Dappled Things on the issue. I've been meaning to address this for a while now. But understand as I set forth my points that I don't agree with all that may have been done in the Abu Ghraib prison.
Bear with me as I make some points on the issue.
1. We are at war.
Look at the attacks carried out on Clinton's watch. Look at 9-11. Reference Nick Berg if you'd like, but I think there's something strange with that story. I'm not talking conspiracy, but I don't know that he should be a rallying cry. Nonetheless, we are fighting with fanatics who want to kill not just our troops, but our civilians.
Too many Americans have forgotten 9-11. If you don't live in a metro area, you still feel safe. You're isolated from the fears and reminders. You're safe in suburbia, walking your dog and mowing your lawn. But if you were (a) riding the NYC subway everyday; (b) trying to negotiate security checkpoints while driving into Manhattan; (c) walking past Ground Zero to get to your office, you would remember.
War is not pleasant. It is awful. But it is necessary at times.
Nobody said that the war on terror would be over in a year, two years. I remember hearing President Bush address the nation after 9-11. The speech scared me. It sounded like World War III--which may be true... He was solemn. He was truthful, saying this would be a long, difficult war. But how come nobody refers back to that speech when they talk about Iraq now? They make it sound like Bush promised a quick war on terror, like it should be done now.
War is not pleasant. It is people killing people. In this case, we're fighting to protect civilians on our soil.
2. Protecting our homeland requires information.
Our military and intelligence agencies are vitally interested in prying information out of captured terrorists and dare I say mercenaries fighting in Iraq and elsewhere. In the short term, they want to stop attacks on their troops. In the long term, they want to prevent another 9-11.
To do so, they cannot just sit down across the table from a captured terrorist and carry on a conversation. The prisoners hate us. They love their cause to destroy us. So they won't just play 20 questions and help us prevent future attacks.
Instead, our interrogators must break them down psychologically. It's probably not what you've seen in movies. It's not even the good cop, bad cop routine. The mind games may involve some things that aren't pleasant. I doubt they happen in your local police station house. But to protect American citizens, we need information.
That means the interrogators disorient the prisoners. They transport them in hoods to keep them from knowing their whereabouts. They deprive them of sleep. They leave lights on at night and turn them off during the day to confuse the body clock. They sit in the same room, just staring at the prisoner for days on end. They do things to play with the prisoners' minds. Eventually the prisoners break and begin to talk.
The prisoners hate us. They love their cause to destroy us. Interrogation is not Moe and Jim-Bob sitting down to coffee at Hardees on Saturday morning. It's war. War is not pleasant.
3. Al Qaeda has ties to Iraq.
Don't fall for the liberal line that Al Qaeda doesn't have links to Iraq. Throughout the Iraq conflict, reports have surfaced that show the ties. They hardly get any mention in the media, but the stories exist.
Just this month, Turkish authorities arrested a slew of terrorists plotting to bomb a NATO summit. They were with the group Ansar al Islam, a group that has operated in Iraq and has clear ties to Bin Laden.
Read the Reuters story here. Another article that I can't find now mentioned that the terrorists were going to return to fight in Iraq after the NATO Summit bombing.
Saddam's Iraq and Bin Laden have ties. We are at war with both. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. We need to have solid information from the captured fighter in these groups to prevent another 9-11.
4. This controversy is politically motivated.
It's not hard to see John Kerry using this to help his campaign. Bush is strong in the war on terror. He's a commander-in-chief. Kerry's crowd perceives a chink in the Bush armor with the prison scandal.
When Nick Berg's dad comes out and blames Bush for his son's death, the media eats it up. But I think there were enough factors in the Berg story to place the blame on an adventurous young man. I'm not making light. I'm just making the point that Bush is not to blame. The media should know that grieving people make some pretty irrational statements to help deal with a loss--the loss is anyone's fault but the victim.
Politics may not be war, but it's not pleasant.
5. Our troops need the proper tools.
The John Kerry's of this world would love to see Iraq become another Vietnam. They draw that comparison as often as possible. But just look at the facts and you'll see that's not the case. This isn't about winning a political office. It's about the welfare of our military.
We must be wary of anything that might limit our troops in combat zones. Kerry has a deplorable voting record when it comes to defense. Look at Kerry on the Record: Defense. If it were up to Kerry, we'd still be fighting with Vietnam-era technology. We need to give our troops the best tools they can have to fight the fight.
One tool is information. If the prison abuse scandal is taken to the logical conclusion that the media is pointing to, our information gathering tools will be severly damaged. We cannot let the liberal media's outcry about Abu Ghraib limit how our intelligence agencies play mind games. That's taking a tool from us and giving it to the terrorists. We cannot allow another 9-11.
We must remember that we are at war. It's not like we're dealing with a burglar here. We're dealing with people who hate us and want to kill us.
Pray about this conflict. Pray for believers in combat zones. Pray for believers in urban areas that live under the stress of another potential attack on our soil. Pray for our commander in chief. Our prayers are an incredible tool that we can wield on behalf of our troops and our country.
May God bless America and keep His merciful hand of protection on our fighting forces around the world.
Posted by JRC at May 14, 2004 11:28 AM | TrackBack