Not so long ago, the American media was abuzz concerning the alleged abuse of enemy combatants being held at Guantanamo Bay (GITMO), the American military base in Cuba. Well, here we are some time later and the hard evidence of abuse occurring at GITMO has yet to surface. If anything, the hard evidence demonstrates the American news media engaged in nothing more than a modern day witch hunt against the Bush administration.
By throwing enough mud on the wall, the American media were hoping something would stick. It never did. As it turns out, the most pressing issue of concern, as it pertains to GITMO, was the admission by the Bush Administration that several members of the American military may have mishandled a Koran. This was not enough for the American media. They insisted there was evidence of abuse by the American troops at GITMO.
When Newsweek, the traditionally liberal magazine, released a story alleging American soldiers flushed a Koran down a toilet, many Muslims around the world were up in arms. Riots ensued overseas and more than a dozen people were killed during violent protests against the Koran flushing American military.
Well, as it turns out, no such Koran flushing incident occurred. Newsweek retracted its story and the cat was finally out of the bag. The American media were shown to be nothing more than a group of mudslinging reactionaries.
One might ask why the American media and the Democrat’s in Congress keep grasping at straws in order to undermine President Bush’s war against terrorism? Sour grapes would be one reasonable explanation. After working day and night to spin the media message, in order to assist both Al Gore and John Kerry in their presidential bids, the American people still elected George W. Bush as President twice; each time with a majority of more than 270 Electoral votes.
All this talk of abuse by the media and the Democrat Party only draws attention to the real civil rights abuses that occurred during a time of war. During World War II, Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) began a policy of abuse that would make civil libertarians scream bloody murder had it occurred today under G.W. Bush’s watch. On February 11, 1942, FDR ordered the War Department to prepare for the entire evacuation of all Japanese-American citizens on the west coast of the United States.
Using the War Powers Act as if he were of nothing short of dictator, FDR then signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing the removal of Japanese-Americans from their very homes and placing them in prison camps. True to the words of Lord Acton, the great British historian, who once said: “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”, FDR’s power became absolute and corrupt simultaneously as he then turned his attention to rounding up German-American and Italian-American citizens and placing them in prison camps as well.
Let us not forget, these were American citizens who did not break the law. Their only crime according to FDR was their ethnicity. For this, these law abiding American citizens were taken from their homes and treated like terrorists. Talk about ethnic profiling!
Ironic isn’t it? Today, those who truly are terrorists are being held at GITMO by the Bush administration to keep America safe. For this act of defending our national security the cultural left is in an uproar. I find it quite interesting that FDR has always been an icon to the political left. He has taken on a mythical god-like status over the years. For this reason, the charges of abuse at GITMO, aimed against the Bush administration, are hypocritical to say the least.
Those imprisoned in GITMO are not American citizens. They have no Constitutional rights. Therefore their Constitutional rights can’t be violated as they have none. Yet, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) claims they do. This is laughable coming from the ACLU, an organization that was founded by three members of the Communist Party of America.
Secondly, those imprisoned at GITMO are terrorists who fit the legal category of “enemy combatants”. As enemy combatants, these terrorists are not entitled to the protection and rights of the Geneva Convention. Yet, even though enemy combatants do not have Geneva Convention protection rights, the Bush Administration has afforded these terrorists the protection rights agreed upon at the Geneva Convention.
That’s right, the Bush administration is treating the enemy combatants--some of who were caught in the very act of attacking American military personnel in Iraq, better than the terrorists deserve to be treated. Even more astounding are the conditions at GITMO.
The conditions at GITMO are far superior to the conditions these terrorists were accustomed to in their own countries of origin. Some of these terrorists are now using toilets, drinking clean water and eating three square meals a day for the first time in their very lives. The enemy combatants at GITMO are treated to Muslim diets daily - diets that meet their strict religious standards. Our military forces in Iraq are treated to suicide bombers and Improvised Explosive Devices (IED’s) on a daily basis.
The terrorists at GITMO are given the Koran (paid for by American tax dollars I might add), along with ample time to pray 5 times per day. Yet, our nation’s military is under investigation for alleged, “Christian proselytizing” at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.
Is there abuse at GITMO? Are you kidding me?! I am not claiming that there has never been nor ever will be a situation where someone is not treated in a manner which we would all like to be treated. However, there are circumstances to consider. Our military is trained to operated and function with skill and precision, however they are human, and we have to account for human error. We do not however, throw away and criticize an entire system at the fault of one do we?
Still looking for evidence of abuse at GITMO? Well, good luck. You will be hard pressed to find it.
So where did all these charges of abuse come from in the first place? You may find it interesting to know that after breaking up Osama Bin Laden’s terrorist network in Afghanistan, our nation’s military forces came upon the Al Qaeda training manual. In the manual were instructions for a member of Al Qaeda to cry “abuse” if captured by the American armed forces. The manual went on to say that forces within America would be sympathetic to the terrorists’ cause if they only cried, “abuse”.Judging by the behavior of the American media and the Democrat Party of recent months, it is easy to figure out who those sympathetic forces are.
