The American Spectator

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Git Thee to Gitmo : /p>

Reading Quin's piece on Gitmo reminded me of a story my father related to me about one of his experiences guarding Japanese prisoners of war. As I've been to Gitmo, pre-Camp Delta days, I know of the Spartan nature of the place.

The story my father told me will stand in stark contrast to the good-natured people we have warehoused at Gitmo. My father's primary duty during one part of WWII was to guard Japanese POWs during their work details outside the Camps they were kept in the United States. On one of the trips back in from a work detail the group of POWs in the back of an open Duce and a Half became agitated and excited. My father was armed with more that harsh words and had no concern for his safety and quickly realized the cause of the commotion. The route in and out of the Camp had a low hanging tree limb over the road that required anyone standing up in the Duce and Half bend down or be hit by it. My father knew where this limb was relative to where they were on the road. He was facing the POWs not up the road at the fast approaching limb. The Japanese POWs operating under their ideas of honor and such saw it as their duty to warn their new "master" of the on coming doom or face dishonor and ultimately be punished if they did not. They honestly feared the consequences of not protecting their captor from harm and my father had come to understand this and at the appropriate moment, ducked to the relief of his charges. No one ordered my father to be humane to what were obviously a defeated people. He did his duty and to their credit, those same people and their offspring are some of our best allies today. Respect brings respect.

p>The people we are engaged with in this war have shown many of the same suicidal and brutal tactics in this war as the Japanese did throughout WWII. A vital difference is that our current enemy has shown not a shred of honor on or off the battlefield. My father's POWs would be amazed at the luxury found at Camp Gitmo and thoroughly disgusted at the dishonor those there represent. My pet cats have more humanity than the bulk of those at Camp Gitmo. Our bending over to respect the two-legged animals there is not going to bring a like response. They do not see themselves as either defeated or required by their law to return the favor. You cannot reason with a fanatic whose whole upbringing has revolved around finding a good day to die rather than living everyday to the fullest. Being "nice" to these people is a sure sign of weakness and enrages them even more. They have no concept of human decency left in their makeup. They aren't going to go home "after the war" and get on with their lives. The bulk of them will pick up the first weapon they can find and look for someone to kill or be killed in order to fulfill their life long pursuit of dying well. Putting these people on trial will make a mockery of what is already a worthless institution with regard to justice for most victims. Anyone who can't make the trip to Gitmo to see these fine upstanding examples of humanity can get a good glimpse of what is at Gitmo by visiting the local zoo and observing the social behavior of the larger prime apes. You won't have to observe long. br> -- Thom Bateman br> Newport News, Virginia /p>

Thank you, Quin Hillyer, for an honest and factual assessment of Gitmo. The one thing you may have been missed was how the detainees use old MRE bag filled with urine and feces to throw on our guards. Despite this uncivilized behavior our troops do not retaliate, but continue to act as professionals.

p>To those who want to close Gitmo might I suggest we ship the detainees to some terrorist-appeasing venue in New England or the Northwest. I'm sure jihadists would feel right at home with the arrogant, obnoxious and anti-military Quislings of either region. br> -- Michael Tomlinson br> Jacksonville, North Carolina

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