As I wrote in a previous post, I don’t believe there should be a set-in-stone policy regarding treatment of all prisoners we take in Iraq and elsewhere in the course of the War on Terror.

To be a little more specific, there are two general factions we are fighting in Iraq, the Sunnis who are themselves Iraqis and are, therefore, attempting to regain their former status in their own country, and the so-called “foreign fighters,” al-Qaeda members and others whose presence in Iraq is strictly to disrupt the democratization of a country that is not even theirs.

Arguably, then, while the latter group can only be called terrorists, the former might rightly be called insurrectionists. Both groups are the enemies of the overwhelming majority of Iraqis who want their new democracy to flourish, therefore members of both groups must be captured or killed until their respective forces have been broken.

While we may consider rules of conduct for blanket humane treatment to the insurgents we capture, this should not apply to terrorists nor to anyone else who has been involved in the murder of innocent civilians or the beheadings of abductees — al-Qaeda members are mass murderers who deserve no consideration as human beings. Some speak of a moral high ground, that’s all well and good, but when applying such concepts to fighting terrorists, we are doing so at our own peril and that of our troops and of civilians. I don’t believe that a terrorist’s rights, comforts or life should even be a consideration if the life of a single U.S. or Iraqi soldier or citizen might instead be saved.

In today’s Washington Times:

President Bush yesterday abandoned his opposition to expanding a ban on cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of terror suspects, but only after winning legal protections for CIA interrogators.
The agreement was a victory for Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, who for months has pushed for an expansion of the ban in spite of strong opposition from the White House, including threats of a veto.
“It’s a done deal,” Mr. McCain said after meeting with the president at the White House. He said the legislation would protect “all people, no matter how evil or bad they are.”

Well, Senator McCain, that last part definitely disqualified you from my list of possible candidates to vote for in the next Presidential election.

Conservatives were not impressed.
Legal scholar Mark Levin of the Landmark Legal Foundation called the McCain proposal “the al Qaeda Bill of Rights.” He predicted it would subject U.S. soldiers to civilian courts.
Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh said the proposal would harm Mr. McCain’s expected run for the White House in 2008, but he acknowledged the Arizona Republican was relentless in pressuring the Bush administration.
“He wasn’t going to back down,” Mr. Limbaugh told his audience. “He’s attached this to the defense appropriations bill, and the president, really, I think was up against a wall because money for the military runs out at the end of the year.”

Read the rest here.

I fly a lot — not like Superman or Sister Bertrille, lacking in their skills I’m limited to airplanes, mostly those operated by American and United Airlines.

As a result, I pass through the TSA’s screening menage enough that I’m familiar with every variant — despite the fact that all airport screening crews work for the same gubmint agency, they seem to do things differently at different airports.

I’m not a very well organized traveller, I tend to procrastinate, during multi-destination trips, when it comes to booking my next flight, from, say, point B to point C, and sometimes do so only a day before making a flight. This sends up a flag at the respective airline itself, and their computers put through an automatic request for a behind the scenes baggage inspection and a session at the screening point with Mr. Wand.

I’ve been through airports that required removing shoes, a few that didn’t, some that restrained you from leaving the scanning area until all your possessions(pocket items, laptop, etc) had cleared the conveyor belt, and many whose agents were not very thorough. I blogged back in October about how a Swiss Army knife I’d totally forgotten about, buried deep in my computer carrying case in August, had travelled through a whole bunch of airports, including O’Hare, Midway, Dulles, National, Orlando, JFK and others before being found by a diligent screener at Logan in early October.

While headed for a recent flight from Reagan National to O’Hare on a day that was really, really quiet, I found myself in a quagmire of utter confusion at a screening point because some idiot had left the shoulder strap from a carry-on bag hanging outside the plastic bin you put your stuff in for scanning and it got itself jammed in the conveyor belt. Suddenly several of the screeners were over there attempting to wrestle the strap loose(they looked like the Keystone TSA Screeners) while others tried to reroute the line to the adjacent conveyor belts. Talk about professionalism, it was indeed a professional mess.

But beyond these vagaries in the millieu(man, too much French for this time of the morning –meeelyiewww– gag–choke!) of being established as a probable non-terrorist and a safe bet to allow aboard the airplane, there is still the issue of political correctness that overshadows the entire experience.

And that is the policy of including every kind of person in the “special attention” category… except those whose profiles most match those of the kind of terrorist all this extra security and extra hassle was added on to keep from getting aboard airplanes to begin with.

Young Arab males, one of the ACLU’s protected categories, along with pedophi– oops, there I go, off on one of my digressions — okay, this time I’ll stay on topic.

Sure, we’ve all been over this many times, but our entreaties seem to be falling on deaf ears. Instead of responding to realistic criticism, the TSA is indulging in appeasement tactics. Sure, this pass card program they’re gearing up for will make things a little more convenient for us frequent flyers, at least until we all have them and the lines we access become longer than the lines of those who don’t, and sure, it will be nice for those who have little pairs of scissors and souvenir letter openers in their carryons to be able to keep them — it really doesn’t matter, anyway: A terrorist can order a can of ginger ale and rip it open to make a nasty slashing weapon, for one of many examples I could make but won’t, I don’t want to give anybody any even “better” ideas they don’t have already.

The point is, those who most fit the terrorist profile are the ones who need to be given the most attention, not a little old lady from Kalamazoo or a four year old girl clutching the latest Barbie and sucking her thumb.

I’ll say no more, and let former Congressman Joe Scarborough say the rest.

The Iraqi elections were a big success, to judge by the numbers of voters that showed up at the polls, including the selfsame Sunnis who had boycotted the last election. In fact, many of the polls at which Sunnis voted were secured by Saddamist Sunni guerillas to protect voters from their al-Qaeda fellow travellers, who had, in advance, proclaimed that anyone who took part in the democratic process would be branded infidels and treated accordingly.

Many “experts” completely ignore these developments and say that Iraq is engaged in a civil war. Well, there aren’t a whole lot of civil warriors over there, the insurgency by actual Iraqis, while perhaps larger than the number of so-called foreign fighters, is still a drop in the bucket compared to the millions of pro-democracy Iraqis.

Then there are those who claim that there is no chance of Iraq ever achieving democracy, “because it isn’t the way of such people, they have lived under the rule of dictators and monarchs for too many centuries and it is all they know.”

Well, it would appear that the Iraqi people let their fingers do the talking — the purple ones, that is, cheerfully and enthusiastically.

They have shown that they welcome the opportunity of self government, that they cherish the right to speak freely(as evidenced by all of the newspapers that have appeared in the wake of the Hussein regime’s demise), and that their courage is up to the task of fighting for their freedom.

Prior to the elections,

One anecdote from Mosul,” said General Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, when he spoke at the National Defense University earlier this month. “There was a police recruiting station. Forty young men lined up to sign up to become Iraqi policemen. A vehicle-borne IED explodes — kills or badly injures 12 of them. The next day, the 28 remaining return to the same spot to sign up to be policemen.

“And that kind of courage,” the general told his audience, “is being shown across Iraq by literally thousands and thousands of Iraqis who want to serve their country.”

After the elections,

The basic gist: Iraqis were pleased as punch to be able to choose whomever they wanted to run their country.

So now we’re there, we’re at the point in Iraq that they have established the government that will lead them for the next four years, a government by the people, of the people and for the people(wish I’d said that). We’ve helped establish an educational system that is already teaching thousands of knowledge hungry children, including girls, who might otherwise have never had the opportunity to learn and we’re training their army and police to carry on after our troops have been pulled out.

We are successfully engendering a democracy where there was none in the Arab world, despite overt and covert resistance by many of Iraq’s neighbors, and in so doing starting a chain reaction that must certainly lead to positive political changes throughout the region, changes that will inevitably be of benefit to our own national security.

We saw the future the terrorists intend for our nation on that fateful morning of September the 11th, 2001. That day we learned that vast oceans and friendly neighbors are no longer enough to protect us. September the 11th changed our country; it changed the policy of our government. We adopted a new strategy to protect the American people: We would hunt down the terrorists wherever they hide; we would make no distinction between the terrorists and those who harbor them; and we would advance our security at home by advancing freedom in the Middle East.

Our President is right(yes, he is, thank God, both ways), and despite the anti-war, anti-Bush, anti-America, anti-American way rantings of the Angry Left, who couldn’t care less that we’ve freed a nation from a murderous, oppressive tyrant and planted the seed of democracy in a region that spawns the worst possible enemies of the American way of life, are more concerned with their hatred of the Chief Executive(he won, you see, beat both straw man Algore and traitor Kerry, so they are very angry, indeed) than they are with less important issues like homeland security and freedom for the citizens of countries ruled by people who would make Idi Amin Dada look benevolent.

George W. Bush is 100% correct. We must stay the course in order to give the Iraqi people a chance to get their democracy sorted out, now that they have voted.

Sure, we have politicians like Durbin, Dean and Kerry committing verbal treason, making statements that would cause them to disappear in the kind of country they would have the United States become, their words serving only to embolden our enemy and get more U.S. military people killed, but that’s of no concern to them: They can blame the results of their crimes on the Bush Administration in an effort to further their own careers while concealing their own complicity.

These are true scumbags, traitors whose only concerns are their own political fortunes, who are elected and reelected by morons and both witting and unwitting fellow traitors. These followers, those who march to their baseless ideals and bumper sticker slogans are simpletons, cowards, gullible fools, pseudointellectuals and fellow wannabe socialists. People who either haven’t a clue as to how good they’ve got it as Americans or who would prefer life under a regime more in tune with Karl Marx than with Samuel Adams.

The cartoon-like, fanatic rantings of self-seeking politicians like Kerry and Dean or lying moonbats like Michael Moore and Cindy Sheehan are actually palatable to these poor, stupid souls, the anti-American, anti-life and anti-God policies of organizations like the ACLU their sources of “spiritual” nourishment, their well received anti-Christ, their life’s message anti-based. They want to destroy the most precious political philosophy-cum-reality in the history of the earth and don’t even know why, or that they are even trying to do so.

Iraq is the focal point of a great battleground whose alternative may well be the road to Armageddon(and here I am, a Jew whose religious beliefs end with the Old Testament), not that which ends the New Testament, but one which could well culminate in catastrophes whose effects could easily make even the least religious among us wish for the Biblical version.

I had wanted to post on President Bush’s speech at the Woodrow Wilson Center and include excerpt links, but I ran into the usual problem: MSM articles on Bush speeches only pick out one or two statements he makes that they can spin and turn into a false theme for the entire speech.

Yes, fair, balanced reporting. Not!

Instead, straight from the White House website and in its entirety, the transcript of the speech can be read here.

You gotta read this, it’s great!

Ann Coulter asks, Why Can’t I Get Arrested?

James Joyner, at Outside The Beltway has posted on the new, classified policies for interrogation being set up by the U.S. Army, which the New York Times speculates will anger U.S. Senator John McCain(R, Arizona) as he is presently negotiating with the White House and the House of Representatives on a set of guidelines to prevent cruel treatment of prisoners taken in the Global War On Terror(GWOT).

Joyner writes,

Not having seen the rules, I have no view on whether they go “too far.” I would note, however, that by definition having precise legislative guidelines means there is a line between legal and illegal conduct. So, if going “right to the edge” is a problem, that line needs to be redrawn.

Further, the Army, like any government agency, will naturally issue regulations for their employees giving them precise guidelines to stay within compliance with the law. While doing so may have the effect of giving them encouragement to go right up to the limits of the law, that is not necessarily the intent. Indeed, from the little information provided by the article, it would seem the opposite is true:

From the Times: One Army officer expressed exasperation that senior military and civilian officials were failing to articulate a coherent approach toward interrogation, saying much of the confusion centered on disparate definitions of abuse. “Everybody’s talking past each other on this,” the officer said. ” ‘Cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment’ is at the crux of the problem, but we’ve never defined that.”

The new manual, the first revision in 13 years, will specifically prohibit practices like stripping prisoners, keeping them in stressful positions for a long time, imposing dietary restrictions, employing police dogs to intimidate prisoners and using sleep deprivation as a tool to get them to talk, Army officials said. In that regard, it imposes new restrictions on what interrogators are allowed to do. Those practices were not included in the manual in use when most of the abuses occurred at Abu Ghraib in Iraq in the fall of 2003, but neither were they specifically banned.

I’m not all that sure a fixed set of interrogation guidelines is what is needed here, at least not one that is uniform for all prisoners.

If, say, our(or the Iraqi) forces capture a terrorist from al-Qaeda-in-Iraq, one who has been involved in the bombing murders of children and the beheading of innocent abductees, and it is believed that the man possesses information that can be valuable toward saving the lives of soft targets or coalition troops or further damaging the terrorist infrastructure, I see absolutely no reason to accord that animal any rights whatsoever when it comes to extracting information from him. I’m all for doing whatever it takes to wrest the intelligence from him, and I could care less what becomes of him afterwards. This is war, not a game of patty cakes, and you can be damn sure that if the roles were reversed, he would do the same to you, and probably laugh in your face in the process. These are not human beings as we know human beings, they are rabid murderers who kill for the sake of killing and use religion as their justification.

Making nice and making it law that we make nice will only embolden them further. It has been proven time and time again that whenever we show mercy to Islamofascist terrorists, they perceive it as weakness and as a victory for themselves, and their attacks increase both in volume and viciousness.

By upstaging the senator’s efforts with their own set of rules that might be deemed legally acceptable (if possibly slightly more harsh than Mr. McCain’s own suggestions are likely to be), I believe the Army is, in effect, doing the right thing, especially in keeping their proposed interrogation methods a secret to prevent the enemy from being able to devise ways to resist them. The people do not have a “right to know.” Terrorists watch CNN, too.

I am not, by nature, a vicious person, but I believe that certain circumstances, particularly those dealing with the defense of the innocent and of country against an enemy such as the one we face in the GWOT, require realism-based responses.

Michael Rubin’s Op-Ed in today’s WSJ Online is as definitive as one can get on the influence of Iraq’s new democracy upon the rest of the Arab world.

The coalition’s ouster of Saddam may have created a template for change, but it is Iraqis who have pressed forward to hold not only Saddam, but also subsequent politicians, to account. On June 28, 2004, Coalition Provisional Authority administrator L. Paul Bremer appointed Iyad Allawi as interim prime minister. Mr. Allawi, a former Baathist, was a favorite of the U.S., British and Jordanian intelligence services. He projected an image of strong leadership to an Iraqi audience craving security. He promised to jumpstart reconstruction. But he failed. Corruption exploded. Iraqis blamed his empowerment of senior Baathists for the spread of insurgency and decline in security. Furthermore, he treated U.S. diplomats, not Iraqis, as his most important constituency. He campaigned surrounded by American security agents. Iraqis had enough. On Jan. 30, millions braved bombs to bounce him from office. Even with the trappings of incumbency–media coverage and a bully pulpit for his campaign–he barely mustered 14%. As Egyptians, Libyans, Tunisians and Syrians watched with envy, Iraqis held a failed incumbent to account.

They will do it again tomorrow. Like Mr. Allawi, current Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari has failed. Local humor is telling. A popular Baghdad joke tells of how he walks into his office to find a rooster, dog and donkey. “I’m here to wake you up so you can do your job,” the rooster crows. “I’m here to provide security,” the dog barks. “Why are you here?” Jaafari asks the donkey. “I don’t know. I’m no different from you,” the donkey brays.

Read the entire story here.

RightMarch now has a TV spot featuring the patriotic Right Brothers and their song, Bush Was Right.

Bill Greene, President of RightMarch, can use some help from all of us to get it on the air and get it some exposure. Up until recently, the left, via the dumbass, treasonous stooges of liberalism Mainstream Media were creaming us with their propaganda, now the right thinkers in Washington{not the apples and Bill Gates one, the District of Columbia one}, from George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Carl Rove on down are finally speaking out and turning the tide from anti-American leftist B.S. to the truth and consequently bringing up the approval ratings of the administration as more and more Americans learn what’s really going on in our nation’s capital, the economy and Iraq.

The tireless(I don’t know where he gets it, he’s a pretty big guy), tenaciously patriotic Mr. Greene tells all about it in the latest RightMarch alert.

ALERT: Doesn’t it feel good to say “I told you so” when you’re proven right?

Wouldn’t you like to say it right in the face of all those liberals who have been trashing President Bush for five years?

Now you can.

Take a look at this 30-second TV ad we’re planning to run nationwide - you’re gonna LOVE it:

http://www.rightmarch.com/bwrad.htm

I know, I know — it just doesn’t seem right, kicking the liberals when they’re down. After all, the economy is up thanks to tax cuts; the Iraqis are holding free elections; Saddam Hussein is on trial; our brave troops are making great progress in the War on Terror; and the President’s poll numbers are climbing again.

It’s enough to make Ted Kennedy cry in his drink. It’s enough to flip Carl Levin’s comb-over. It’s enough to put a sour look on Nancy Pelosi’s face. It’s enough to turn MoveOn into RollOver.

And our ad is designed to keep it up — and keep it in their faces.

We’ve been pushing our “Tell the TRUTH About Iraq” campaign for months now, with print and radio ads delivered to millions nationwide. And thanks to YOU, that campaign is WORKING — we’re hearing more and more about all of the GOOD news coming from Iraq, instead of just the small amount of BAD news that the mainstream media has been bombarding us with. Even the Administration has finally started holding “good news” press conferences, after “holding back” for so long.

And, we’re in the middle of our grassroots campaign to force MTV to play the new song by The Right Brothers, “Bush Was Right!” We’ve crashed MTV’s website several times with all of the requests from our members to see the video on their show, “Total Request Live.” We ARE getting their attention — and we’ll keep pushing hard for them to show at least a LITTLE balance in what they’re presenting to America’s youth.

Now, though, it’s time to REALLY grab some attention — from the mainstream media; from liberal politicians; and especially, from average Americans who need to hear the TRUTH about all of these FACTS.

This ad is a GREAT way to do that — but we need YOUR help to get it on the air:

https://secure.responseenterprises.com/rightmarch/?a=7

We want to start out by airing the ad on Fox News, especially during the top-rated shows “The O’Reilly Factor” and “Hannity & Colmes”. O’Reilly’s show alone attracts over TWO MILLION viewers per show!

With all of the media coverage that will get us, we can then move on to airing the ad — where else? — on MTV.

Unless they continue to censor us — in which case, it will get even MORE media coverage, and even MORE Americans will be reminded that “Bush Was Right”…

And YOU will get to say “I told you so” to even MORE liberals.

This is a BIG move for us, and it’s going to cost BIG bucks. A 30-second ad on “The O’Reilly Factor” alone costs over $30,000. Even MTV charges $8,000 for an ad like this.

But we KNOW that this ad will have a HUGE effect. It can’t be helped — liberals already HATE the song in this ad, and they’ve been screeching about it for weeks (everyone from Al Franken on Air America, to leftist Keith Olbermann on MSNBC, to bloggers like the Daily Kos). And can you blame them? They can’t STAND the fact that “BUSH WAS RIGHT!”

PLEASE HELP US get this ad aired where it will have the most effect: Fox News… Bill O’Reilly… Hannity & Colmes… MTV… and beyond!

If you can afford to donate $30,000, great — we’ll get this ad on right away! Most of our members can’t do that, of course — but if 6 people give $5,000, or 10 people give $3,000, or 15 people gave $2,000, or 30 people gave $1,000, we’d reach our goal!

In fact, if just 300 people gave $100 each… or just 600 people gave $50 each… or just 1000 people gave $30 each… this ad would immediately be seen by TWO MILLION people!

WILL YOU HELP? Whether it’s $30 or $30,000, every bit counts! This is YOUR chance to grab some attention for the TRUTH — and have fun doing it! Click here to donate now:

https://secure.responseenterprises.com/rightmarch/?a=7

If you’d like to donate by check, please send to:

RightMarch.com
Dept Code 7
PO Box 20275
Washington, DC 20041-2275

Sincerely,

William Greene, President
RightMarch.com

According to NewsMax, traitoress Jane Fonda now says that U.S. soldiers are specially trained killing machines, presumeably, I suppose, like the Terminator, LOL.

“Hanoi Jane” Fonda is claiming that ever since Vietnam, U.S. troops have been trained to commit atrocities against innocent civilians as a matter of military policy.

“Starting with the Vietnam War we began training soldiers differently,” the anti-American actress says in an email to the Washington Post.

Read the story here.

This RightMarch alert arrived yesterday, but as I was working to overcome technical difficulties that weren’t solved to the extent I was assured they were, and posting this alert involved reinforcing all the links herein, I am only now getting it published:

Alert: On December 15, the people of Iraq will do what no American should ever have to contemplate. They will risk their lives to vote. For the third time this year, the brave people of Iraq will go to the polls to determine their future. This time they will do so to elect a new government under the constitution that they approved in an October referendum.

On January 30, 2005, AP photographer Andrew Parsons took an iconic photo of an Iraqi woman flashing a “V” for victory after she voted:

http://www.rightmarch.com/images/iraq3.jpg

Her finger, stained purple by poll workers to show that she voted, became a symbol of defiance to the terrorists, a symbol of pride, and a symbol of freedom.

Last January, 10 year-old Shelby Dangerfield from Montana demonstrated her solidarity with the freedom-loving Iraqis by inking her finger:

http://www.rightmarch.com/images/shelby.jpg

Join Bill Bennett, Sean Hannity, Martha Zoller and other radio hosts who are encouraging Americans to follow her example by asking them to ink their right index finger purple from December 12-15 to show support for the freedom loving people of Iraq as they prepare to vote on December 15th.

Here are some other things you can do to show support for a free Iraq:

* From December 12-15, ink your right index finger purple or wear a purple ribbon.

* Encourage your family, friends, and neighbors to do the same.

* Email photos of yourself flashing your “Purple Finger ‘V’ for Victory in Iraq” to Pictures@PurpleFingerForFreedom.Org for posting to the PurpleFingerForFreedom.Org web site.

* Visit PurpleFingerForFreedom.Org

* Encourage local schools to download the Purple Finger for Freedom Model Lesson plan from PurpleFingerForFreedom.Org and ask teachers to teach a current events class about the upcoming Iraqi election based on it.

“Look at how long it took us to move from independence to the Constitution. Well, let’s see 1776 would be a good place to start with independence. It was 1788 before we had our first election under the constitution. So, we should take such pride in what’s going on in Iraq because it was the process we’ve gone, we went through as a new nation that has set a model for the world. And the Iraqi people of course we should very proud and supportive of what they’re doing, but we should notice that it is the American example that has led people to the idea of constitutions all around the world, the idea that you need a plan of government, a framework for governing. And, gosh, it makes me almost want to be a teacher, you know, on December 15th to be in classrooms across this country and talking to kids about what’s happening in Iraq and how our own history is reflected in it.”
–Mrs. Lynne Cheney
Diane Rehm National Radio Show
November 30, 2005

Let’s show the world that freedom loving peoples are united.

* Post the “SHOW SUPPORT for FREE IRAQIS” graphic below on your website with a link to PurpleFingerForFreedom.Org:

http://www.purplefingerforfreedom.org/images/Index/freeiraq.gif

* Email support@purplefingerforfreedom.org to tell them that you want to be listed on PurpleFingerForFreedom.Org as a Supporting Organization.

Thanks for your support!

The Ad Hoc Committee in Solidarity with Free Iraqis PurpleFingerForFreedom.Org

P.S. Be sure to forward this Alert to EVERYONE you know who wants to help support this giant move towards democracy in Iraq. Thank you!

Sincerely,

William Greene, President
RightMarch.com

The work of RightMarch.com is funded entirely by voluntary contributions. Help us spread the word with a donation to RightMarch.com!
https://secure.responseenterprises.com/rightmarch/?a=7