Sunday, October 01, 2006

Mark Steyn, back from Gitmo

Mark Steyn just got back from visiting Gitmo. He appears to be taking issue with Senator Patrick Leahy's stance on the terrorist bill that was approved by the Senate this past week.

'This is not just a bad bill," said Sen. Patrick Leahy, ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee. ''This is truly a dangerous bill." And it's not just a dangerous bill. It's also "unconstitutional" and "unconscionable" and represents the loss of the nation's "moral compass."
Wow! That's quite a lot for a humble bill on military trials for terrorist (OK, "alleged terrorist") detainees. But Vermont's lefty colossus wasn't done yet in his excoriation of the Bush administration. "Even they cannot dismiss the practices at Guantanamo as the actions of a few bad people," he continued. "Before they just did it quietly, and against the law, on their own say-so, but now they are obtaining license to engage in additional harsh techniques that the rest of the world will see as abusive, as cruel, as degrading and even as torture."


Hmm. I should say a word about "the practices at Guantanamo." As it happens, I've just got back from Gitmo. (That glitch on my green card was finally straightened out.) I've visited several prisons in several countries over the years and never seen anything like this one. Granted, most of what I know about enemy detainee camps comes from what Rear Adm. Harry Harris, who runs Guantanamo, calls "bad movies and worse TV shows," and from a distance very little seems to have changed: the basic look -- barbed wire and watch towers -- would be recognizable to any World War II POWs. But, close up, pretty much everything else has been flushed down the toilet of history. Indeed, even the toilet has been flushed down the toilet of history: In the interests of cultural sensitivity, Gitmo cells were fitted with "Asian-style toilets," because "that's what the detainees prefer." Given that much of the matter that should be going down there ends up being flung over the guards, it seems that this sensitivity over choice of bathroom fixtures is not always appreciated. When visitors like yours truly swing by, the camp likes to serve them the same meal the prisoners get. This being Ramadan, Adm. Harris was particularly proud of the fresh-baked traditional pastries his team had made for the holy month. And he was right: The baklava was delicious. "Baklava" is said by some linguists to come from the Arabic for "nuts" -- and, indeed, in that sense this entire war can sometimes seem like one giant baklava. There was a film out earlier this year called ''The Road To Guantanamo,'' and the poster showed the usual emaciated prisoner hung by shackles against a dungeon wall. No doubt the actor in question did the full Robert De Niro and lost 40 pounds to get himself looking that cadaverous.

Continued...

6 comments:

atarijpb said...

K -

Ever been waterboarded?

K. Carpenter said...

Prove it- and no, some lefty website will not work as proof.

atarijpb said...

Thanks for proving my point. It's not designed to get results, it's designed to get confessions - false ones included. More "maybe" intelligence that got us into this ridiculous war in the first place.

ron_l - truth hurts, don't it?? Rather than trying to insult me, how about think your argument through before insulting your own intelligence. But since you probably support this oil driven military action pretending to be a war on terror, your own intelligence may be hard to find. :-)

The Badgerland Conservative said...

Khlaid Sheikh Mohammed broke down in 2½ minutes. And he lasted the longest. Another big, tough jihadist was crying like a 3 year old girl.

Tell us, atarijpb, why do you care so much about a jihadist that would cut your head off just as soon as look at you? Why do you want to extend the Geneva Convention and the U.S. Constitution to these barbarians?

And don't give me this "Barbra Streisand" about how we have to be better than they are. No matter what we do, we are.

We don't target civilians, we don't kidnap, capture and behead innocent people on camera, we don't sent children wired with C4 into places packed with civilians to act as human bombs.

Your moral equivalency makes me sick. It's appeasement monkeys like you, so intent on self guilt and self flagellation that are going to get millions of Americans killed.

The Badgerland Conservative said...

Club Gitmo: your tropical retreat from the stress of jihad!

atarijpb said...

"Your moral equivalency makes me sick. It's appeasement monkeys like you, so intent on self guilt and self flagellation that are going to get millions of Americans killed."

No Peter, it's people like you who have gotten thousands of Americans killed in this underfunded, poorly-planned and concieved conflict. It's people like you who have killed thousands if Iraqui innocents in the name of Democracy, when it doesn't look like that will happen over time. Read up on your history and tell me how it's going to happen without a plan. It's people like you, who do not think before acting who are doomed to repeat history's greatest foibles like the Vietnam war. If spewing some neo-con talking points makes you feel better about yourself, go ahead. Just don't sacrifice my countrymen to do it like this administration has.

Speaking about Self-Loathing and Guilt, how about that Mark Foley?

"And don't give me this "Barbra Streisand" about how we have to be better than they are. No matter what we do, we are."

Ask your pastor if he feels the same way about your post. Do you kiss your wife and kids with that mouth?