More Live from Gitmo

Here's another testimonial from Lieutenant Peter Hegseth, the Minnesotan interviewed by Hugh Hewitt the other day regarding the real conditions at Guantanamo Bay, in the form of a letter to the Minneapolis (Red-) Star-Tribune (via Powerline):

As a recent veteran of Guantanamo Bay, I've been troubled by the willingness of some (namely this editorial page) to make uninformed inflammatory statements about the detention operations at GTMO. I believe that if any one of them had the opportunity to visit GTMO and witness the operation first hand, they would change their tone, if not their minds altogether.

Not only are the detainees treated humanely (top-notch medical care, hearty meals, recreational facilities, full access to religious observance, etc..) but I personally witnessed instances when detainees did not want to leave. It was not uncommon for my platoon to guard an airfield for hours in preparation for sending a detainee home, only to turn around and bring him back to the detention facility – because he refused to leave! These detainees are not stupid—they know that real torture and inhumane treatment await them at home. And while I know they’re not happy to be in GTMO, they rest assured that they will be treated well because Americans play by the rules. [even when we don't have to]

I feel sheepish even having to defend this issue. While our servicemen (and innocent Iraqi citizens) are being blown-up and tortured overseas, the media obsesses over a handful of “mishandled” Korans and excessive air conditioning. (It’s also worth noting that these so-called instances of “abuse” at GTMO were all uncovered by internal Army investigations! It’s not as if the Army is torturing people and covering it up. On the contrary, the minute the Army gets wind of minor misconduct it swiftly removes and prosecutes those involved. This is an institution upholding the highest moral traditions of our country.)

Would the terrorists do the same? No, I think they’d just wink at us…and then cut our heads off. [emphases added]

LT Peter Hegseth
Forest Lake, MN
U.S. Army National Guard
Infantry

Or blow us all up.

Speaking of which, Double-H received this e-mail from Yoni, a veteran of the Israeli defense services:

[T]orture is not what is happening at Gitmo and that is not only his mistake but that of the left as a whole.

What is happening at Gitmo is a variation of modern techniques of interrogation. I can't go into a lot of detail but people are restrained in certain ways for extended time periods and also not allowed to sleep and sensory deprivation is standard.

Do Israelis learn the Koran, yes some do, as well as learn Arabic, but we also read Mein Kampf and Protocols of the Elders of Zion and all three books are equal in spreading hatred of Jews. [latter emphasis added]

Upper-deck home run, that.

Here's where Yoni starts making you sit up, lean forward, and pay extra attention:

It was Sun Tzu who said it so clearly when it come to the issue of victory or defeat. "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle."

Israel and the USA have fallen into the last category due to the efforts of the left in both countries, the good guys no longer know themselves. We were not divided in WW2 and we won. If Andrew and Irwin were around 60 years ago America would have lost.

Also the majority of people in both countries refuse to know the enemy. If you read the Koran you will find what it says about Christians and Jews: convert or die. It is the knowledge that comes from seeing the look in the eyes of a suicide bomber when they punch the button. [emphasis added]

Both countries due to the effort of the left will lose, and the whole false issue of torture is symbolic of the battle of the left to weaken both countries. The joke on Irwin [Cherminksy] and Andrew [Sullivan] is that they will be murdered screaming and peeing their pants, while the terrorists they defend cut their heads off. [I detect a rhetorical trend...]

The ticking bomb scenario is very real in Israel and could also be the case in the two theaters of war America is currently involved in.

What is a ticking bomb?....

The terrorists you now hold are ticking bombs, and any and all force including force that would result in the death of the terrorist is justified in an effort to obtain intel on weapons and numbers of terrorists. The methods used to inflict extreme pain on these terrorist in order to get them to maybe talk in the shortest time possible are brutal beyond belief in many cases. Again this is totally justified, under this scenario. [emphasis added]

IOW, we're in a war of annihilation; and it is mandatory that we kill them before they can kill a whole lot more of us.

Meanwhile, Michelle Malkin clotheslines the "treat 'em like regular criminals" twaddle, a steaming pile in which the Democrats' favorite Republicans are wallowing like hogs in the mire.

The bottom line, from either angle, is still the same: the prisoners at Gitmo are illegal combatants, not common criminals and not uniformed enemy soldiers. They are neither entitled to access to the U.S. civilian criminal justice system nor Geneva Convention protections, which in fact would legally allow us to line up all five hundred-plus jihadis against a wall and summarily execute every damned last one of them, and flush all their Korans for good measure. And they are literal animals so dangerous to American lives, military and civilian, that we dare not release them.

And despite the fifth columnar propaganda, the American people seem to still get that, even if the Beltway crowd picked the wrong month to indulge in nostaglic ostrichism.

The latter led to the latest chapter in the Karl Rove legend. More on that later.