Poor Republican

All over the world today three groups are rejoicing at the long-awaited reversal of Bush’s hated policies on terror detainees:  terrorists, their state backers such as Iran, and liberals.

To begin with, Obama has done something never done in the history of this country or the world, besides being elected because your skin isn’t white.  He has made us the only country in the history of warfare to require that we place enemies captured in the course of war on trial in civilian courts, with all the rights and rules attached.

Obama ordered Guantanamo closed within a year.  It doesn’t take a year to close a camp.  Why so long?  Could it be that he has no clue what to do with the detainees?  Could it be that he’s finding out that being the Commander-in-Chief isn’t quite as simple as repeating bumper sticker slogans?  Maybe that’s why he had to keep checking with Greg Craig to make sure he was saying the right things.  Oh, but he did say we’d have a commission to “study” the matter and develop a “process” for dealing with the detainees.  Or was that Greg Craig who said it?  It can be a little hard to tell who’s really talking during the ceremony.

When Obama press secretary Robert Gibbs was asked what that meant for the detainees we already have, he said that’s what the commission would tell us.  Make a short-sighted, ideologically-based decision, and let a commission figure out how to make it work, you know, eventually.  Now that’s leadership.

Maybe Obama doesn’t want his name attached to the victims of the next attack, which might very well be perpetrated by the likes of Said Ali al-Shihri.  Mr. al-Shihri was one of those poor, mistreated detainees held in violation of their “constitutional rights” at Guantanamo.  Apparently being a prime suspect in a deadly embassy bombing isn’t enough to keep you locked up once the Supreme Court decides to let liberal civilian judges intervene in military custody matters overseas.  We released him, and now he’s leading a reformed life as “the deputy leader of Al Qaeda’s Yemeni branch.”  Perhaps now that Obama is “the decider,” he decided that it might not look good for his very slim record as an executive if someone he ordered released became the next deputy of the Jihadist Local 440.

Obama also ordered the end of “torture” and required the closure of all CIA “black sites” where detainees might be held outside even the military’s detention system.  As he put it, from now on, all detainees will be handled in accordance with the Army field manual.  That manual is Army FM 2-22.3, Human Intelligence Collector Operations.

The Army procedures were developed for use on Prisoners of War.  Contrary to liberal judges and pundits, the title “Prisoner of War” does not apply to anyone captured by the military during a conflict.  It requires that the person captured be in uniform.  It requires that the person captured be part of the national army of the enemy nation or its militia or similar auxiliary.  Persons in irregular groups (insurgents) may qualify if they were a citizen of a nation when that nation is occupied by an invader.  As an example, Taliban soldiers would be considered POWs; Al Qaeda  terrorists would not.

Anyone else is not a Prisoner of War, and The Geneva Convention does not cover them as such.  This is why the Bush administration asserted (correctly) that their detention and treatment did not violate the Convention.  For Obama to say that we are now going back to adhering to the Convention is false.  We were never in violation in the first place.

Worse, however, is what adherence to the Convention means.  Liberals say it means no torture.  What it really means is almost no interrogation whatsoever.  For example, you may not subject the detainee to physical discomfort.  Even being forced to sit in a chair for a few hours while being questioned has been argued as a violation.  The old “name, rank, and serial number” cliche’ actually does apply here.

Imagine picking up a new Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.  Instead of sleep deprivation, being subjected to water boarding, and other so-called “torture,” we just ask him what we want to know.  He gives us his name, his position in Al Qaeda (if he even admits those two things) and then says “I want a lawyer.”  Under the new rules, we can’t hold him overseas.  He must be brought…where?  It can’t be Guantanamo; we’re closing that.  It would have to be a place on U.S. soil.

Certainly at that point the same judges ordering that detainees be released or tried in civilian courts would order the same for him.  He would get his lawyer and that would be then end of all questioning.  Suppose, like KSM, he had intimate knowledge of past, present, and future attacks on our troops and citizens, perhaps even chemical or nuclear attacks.  Unlike KSM, we would only find out when it was too late.  We would not be allowed to make him talk.

This is the scenario now being applied to current detainees, most or all of whom will likely be released now.  If they end up in civilian court, the will be subject to those rules of evidence.  What’s the very first rule?  They must be aware of their “rights” before any questioning.  Therefore, any evidence gained would be thrown out.  In addition, any “mistreatment” would be reason to throw out confessions or other evidence.  Without evidence, the charges would be dismissed and the poor, innocent terrorist sent on his merry way.

All over the planet, terrorists are having Miranda cards added to their mission kits as you read this.  Perhaps our soldiers had better start reading detainees their rights upon capture?  Imagine you are an Infantryman on the streets of Fallujah.  You come under attack by IED and ambush.  You drive off the enemy at the cost of several dead and wounded soldiers, overrun what’s left of the enemy and catch several.  You run up and yell “freeze,” followed by “you are under arrest.  You have the right to remain silent.  Anything you say…….”

Fail to do that, and several weeks or months later, your terrorist walks out of federal court a free man.

Almost as bad is Obama’s typical liberal naivete’ about our enemies’ motivations.  He says one of the reasons he’s ordering the end of torture and the black sites is to protect our troops in future conflicts.  This goes back to the liberal, blame-America-first mentality that the only reason terrorists blow people up, torture people and cut people’s heads off and put it on YouTube is because we were mean to them first.  This assumes that if we captured the enemy and put him up at the Ritz Carlton with three gourmet meals a day they would treat captured Americans the same way.  Recent history and common sense say otherwise.  Past history leaves no doubt.

During World War II, an American prisoner’s chances of surviving Japanese captivity was around 65%.  Prisoners were subjected to beatings, torture, medical experiments, beheading, lack of medical care and starvation as a general rule.  During the Korean War, the North Koreans and Chinese treated our prisoners in a similar fashion, with similar death rates.  They added Communist indoctrination to the mix as well.  The North Vietnamese treated our prisoners with similar brutality, including summary executions at the point of capture.  The death rate was lower, but the prisoners were often used for propaganda purposes, which is a clear violation of the Geneva Convention.  Ask Jane Fonda, who easily identified American “violations” of the Geneva Convention in Iraq, but called American POWs’ allegations of North Vietnamese abuse “a lie.”

Obama has issued executive orders based on his obvious graduation from the Jane Fonda School Of Military Stupidity.  They imply that we are to blame.  They imply that the enemy is wrongly mistreated at best, possibly innocent victim at worst.  They give rights to those who do not and should not have them.  They make us less safe, and give the enemy more advantages to use against us.

Congratulations, Mr. Obama.  The pen really is mightier than the sword. Your pen has done more harm in seven minutes than the enemy’s sword could manage in the last seven years.

This was exactly the “hope and change” terrorists and tyrants the world over were looking for.

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