Saturday, October 13, 2007
Opinion
Squeeze it out of ‘em
The New York Times continues lending its helping hand to the enemy...
A demonstrator protesting President Bush's signing of the Military Commissions Act of 2006.
CREDIT: Mark Wilson/Getty Images
By Eric Von Haessler
The New York Times continues lending its helping hand to the enemy by throwing road blocks in the way of Bush's war strategy whenever possible. The paper's latest investigative bombshell concerns two secret memos out of the Justice Department from 2005 that clarify certain authorized interrogation procedures deemed allowable against prisoners of war believed to be in possession of information that could be useful to U.S. interests.
The documents give the o.k. to controversial practices such as waterboarding, sleep deprivation, exposure to freezing temperatures and endless loud music, to name a few.
The arguments of the Left—that these tactics never yield any good information and that our use of these tactics puts our own soldiers at risk if they become prisoners of war are patently ridiculous. First of all, if the methods of interrogation employed by the U.S. are not culminating in good intel—why is it that we've been able to thwart every terrorist plot on the homeland since 9/11?
Secondly, does anyone really believe that al-Qaeda would be influenced by any established protocols
concerning the treatment of captured American soldiers? Danny Pearl and the others who have been
beheaded weren't even soldiers. One can only imagine the horrors that would be visited upon an actual members of the military unlucky enough to find themselves in the hands of this enemy.
To read the hand wringing stories in the mainstream press on this issue is to step through Alice's looking glass. The New York Times and the Left in general is looking to fight an enemy that simply does not exist. The ranks of the real enemy are made up of hyper-violent crazed killers who do not respond to reason and will only give up important information when pushed to the extreme.
This country should not condone or engage in the kind of torture that results in dismemberment, organ failure, or any kind of lasting physical damage. But making someone believe that they are about to die when we know they're not is a perfectly justifiable way to extract information that will potentially save the lives of thousands of Americans working in a high-rise tower or driving through a targeted tunnel.
Al-Qaeda has no interest in fighting the U.S. military. They want to kill you and me. Right at this
moment- in a cave or tent or hotel room somewhere in this world our enemy is making plans to kill more American citizens. It is imperative that when one of those conspirators ends up in our hands we squeeze his gonads tightly until he tells us what he knows.
We get our good intel partly through the use of these harsh methods. Al-Qaeda has the luxury of getting their good intel from the front page of The New York Times. SP
To read more of Eric Van Haessler’s rantings visit myspace.com/madpundit