Friday, September 10, 2004
You Go, Boy!
The best friend I have ever had (besides my wife) says,"Sometimes you have to call a spade a f***ing shovel." That's what Ollie North does in this open letter to John Kerry.
John Kerry's claim to honorable service to his country in Viet Nam is a slap in the face to anyone who has ever worn a US military uniform, and upheld the Code of Conduct. Oliver North does a good job of explaining why.
LTC (ret) North, also, touches on Abu Ghraib, and what happened there. I'd like to go off on that tangent for a bit.
Let me state that what the soldiers did there was wrong. There are no two ways about it. They were wrong. There are several articles of the Uniformed Code of Military Justice that they violated, and they will pay for it. They should pay for it. That is right.
On the other hand, I must say that I don't have a lot of sympathy for the victims of their acts. I think any group that tries to get them freed on the basis of their treatment or anything like that is behaving in an irresponsible manner, and is guilty of the same kind of treachery that Oliver North accuses John Kerry of in his letter.
Let me tell you why.
These guys were not suspected shoplifters, recidivist jaywalkers, chronic speeders, or even drunk drivers. These were the guys that survived the raids on weapons caches, and bomb making labs. These were the guys who survived the firefights that they and their cronies started with US troops. Each one was responsible for at least one of the 1,000 US dead in this war in some way.
If they had to stand in a painful position, go without some sleep, live through the threat of electricity being passed through some sensitive part of their body, or do something that resembled fraternity hazing .... well, then .... GOOD! It's not near as bad as what they were responsible for. For each of those "poor prisoners" there is at least one posthumous Purple Heart, and an American family without a child, sibling, spouse or parent.
Their jailors will be tried and punished, but they do not have my sympathy.
John Kerry's claim to honorable service to his country in Viet Nam is a slap in the face to anyone who has ever worn a US military uniform, and upheld the Code of Conduct. Oliver North does a good job of explaining why.
LTC (ret) North, also, touches on Abu Ghraib, and what happened there. I'd like to go off on that tangent for a bit.
Let me state that what the soldiers did there was wrong. There are no two ways about it. They were wrong. There are several articles of the Uniformed Code of Military Justice that they violated, and they will pay for it. They should pay for it. That is right.
On the other hand, I must say that I don't have a lot of sympathy for the victims of their acts. I think any group that tries to get them freed on the basis of their treatment or anything like that is behaving in an irresponsible manner, and is guilty of the same kind of treachery that Oliver North accuses John Kerry of in his letter.
Let me tell you why.
These guys were not suspected shoplifters, recidivist jaywalkers, chronic speeders, or even drunk drivers. These were the guys that survived the raids on weapons caches, and bomb making labs. These were the guys who survived the firefights that they and their cronies started with US troops. Each one was responsible for at least one of the 1,000 US dead in this war in some way.
If they had to stand in a painful position, go without some sleep, live through the threat of electricity being passed through some sensitive part of their body, or do something that resembled fraternity hazing .... well, then .... GOOD! It's not near as bad as what they were responsible for. For each of those "poor prisoners" there is at least one posthumous Purple Heart, and an American family without a child, sibling, spouse or parent.
Their jailors will be tried and punished, but they do not have my sympathy.
