The American Spectator

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Freedom to Threaten

10.17.06 @ 12:01AM

(Page 2 of 4)

Those who argue that we must follow the Geneva Convention in re captured jihadis because we are "better than they are" seem to ignore the fact that if we do, we will probably end up deader than they are.
-- Gretchen L. Chellson
Alexandria, Virginia

Excellent article. I am so frustrated at all the politicians and retired military who invoke the Geneva Convention for treatment of captured terrorists. They do not belong to any national army, so clearly, the conventions do not apply.

Political posturing about the inhumanity of "water boarding" to elicit information from terrorists is reprehensible, in light of the fact it is routinely administered on our own military personnel in SERE schools, to better prepare them for the horrors of captivity, should they even survive same. Given the current propensity of Islamists to behead, hang, drag through the streets, etc., any and all American military they capture, I think our military "gets it."

My usual revulsion for anything that lawyers, a non-combatant group of hairsplitters, come up with, is unchanged. When a nation is dealing with savages, respect may only be earned at the point of a gun, or at the end of a club. Marquis of Queensberry rules are nice when your enemy is civilized, but our current one doesn't even come close to that category.

Our government should take a close look at how Blackjack Pershing reputedly handled Muslim terrorists in the Philippines early in the 20th century. Whether or not the accounts are true is immaterial. Political correctness will never win us any points with Islamists, so we should cease attempting to make nice. If this offends the sensibilities of some of our more liberal citizens, tell them to kindly avert their gaze.
-- R. Goodson
Vero Beach, Florida

The premise of your article goes right to the heart of the matter. Messrs. McCain, Powell, et al. are not as concerned with the success of the prosecution of the war as they are with their own smug moral and intellectual superiority. Americans will continue to die needlessly and the war will be extended because of this fatuous thinking, but McCain and Powell will have proven themselves to be the most enlightened among us. And that, quite frankly, is the most important thing to them.
-- A. DiPentima

If terrorism is the unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence, how can we even consider discussing ethics and law with terrorists or about how we must fight them? I suggest it's only possible if we suffer some collective derangement and/or death wish, or if the majority capitulate to the minority who may have such deranged and/or destructive tendencies.

But if we've learned nothing from history, even the way we defeated the British in the Revolution, when we could've been called terrorists, and if the majority capitulates, then we deserve what we get. And that won't be the defeat of terrorists.
-- C. Kenna Amos Jr.
Princeton, West Virginia

Marquis of Queensberry. The name says it all.
-- David Govett
Davis, California

THE NERVES OF SOME PEOPLE
Re: The Prowler's Nervous Harry and Howie:

Howard Dean has no reason to be nervous that a Democrat Speaker of the House or Senate majority leader will diminish his role and visibility, because just as when he was Governor of the Great State of Vermont, he was nearly invisible then (how often did anyone, even a democrat, care what Howard did there) and he has been nearly invisible in his role as head of the DNC. Howard's only interest is to satisfy his ego by imagining that he is a very important person. It's too bad that almost no one in the country, except perhaps his wife and family, hold him in such high esteem.

As for the senate minority leader Harry Reid, he seems very typical of people who somehow imagine themselves to be much more important than they in fact are. Our political system must eventually be changed to provide term limits, reduce or eliminate their extraordinary salary and benefits (congressional salaries should be directly tied to the average annual compensation paid to all works in the United States, and that average salary should consider the pay of those who are here illegally), reduce the lavish expense accounts that they are provided, reduce the incredible retirement benefits that they received after a mere twelve years in office.

As for Harry and the insults he freely hurls at others, I say only, "People who live in glass houses should not throw stones"!
-- Patrick R. Spooner, P.E.
Windham, New Hampshire

MAKING HAY
Re: Jeffrey Lord's The Charlie Brown Democrats:

Your Mr. Lord needs to do more research and less speculation. I was acquainted with Harry Hay for many years and he was never known to have a penchant for young men or boys. He was in a monogamous loving relationship for the last 40 years of his life, with his lover John Burnside, a mature man who was similar in age. Please note that this union lasted much longer than your typical heterosexual marriage.

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Foreign Policy, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Catholicism, Islam, Environment, Law, Military, NATO, Conservatism, Oil