As many of you may or may not know I run another blog called Donkephant. Yesterday I recieved a comment that I think deserves some attention. Have you ever been talking with a Conservative / Republican friend and heard this line of reasoning?
“tHE_dEG said…
if you are not with us, you are AGAINST us! why do you care if a terrorist is tortured? why should a terrorist retain rights they have so blatantly attempted to steal from us, and have succeeded at stealing from too many of our own? why should we show remorse to people who would blow themselves up to injure our own or other innocent victims? you all need to take a step back and think about what you’re saying. if you are not with us, you are AGAINST us!
I know I have and I would like to make a few points. First off why should I assume that everyone being tortured in American detention facilities and black sites abroad are terrorists? Terrorists are combatants that are guilty of:
Terrorism-
“The unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons.”
Now anyone can tell you that the sky is red, but that doesn’t necessarily make it so. To pronounce someone a criminal we have a judicial system. These individuals are being held without representation, due process and the right to be tried by a jury. Why? Plain and simple, we don’t have the manpower to allow the thousands of detainees’ access to this. So we allow a shortcut here and there and accept on blind faith that the military leadership can handle being judge and jury. We have all seen the photos and the stories making this acceptance harder and harder.
To the point of terrorists having rights or better yet stealing rights from American citizens, it is not the goal of terrorists to steal or take anything. They do not hate us for our freedoms. The goal is to affect political policy. Ask yourself what was the purpose of The attacks of 9/11?
Was the purpose to intimidate or coerce our government into doing something? What? What was the reason for factions to infiltrate our country and destroy buildings and families lives? Was it their position if 2500+ infidels were killed that our government would pull out of a multi-billion dollar a year region? What were they so pissed about? Before 9/11 what were we doing to them?
Mr. President makes the assertion “they hate our freedom…” or “they are evil do’ers….” What particular parts of our freedom to they hate so much? Were they just born evil and hate America for no reason other than to hate? We trained the Taliban and Bin-Laden to control the Afghani territory. We gave Saddam his weapons to secure Iraq from aggressors. We put them in charge. They couldn’t have been all that bad could they? Where they sitting around in their huts, caves and palaces detesting the fact we have freedom of speech? Freedom from persecution? Right to a fair trial? (Pre-Patriot Act) Why would someone commit suicide in the name of hating our freedoms or our ideologies? Are we painting these terrorists as morons?
The events of 9-11 were all they could muster? We trained these people to overthrow a country and repel the army of the Soviet Union, hijacking 4 planes is the best they could do? I think not. If you really want to intimidate an entire country drop a nuclear weapon on top of it, affect it’s water supply, destroy its vital resources or disrupt it’s public works. You know…..all the things we trained them to do in the first place.
If anything I think I can say with a fair amount of certainty, that we have (as a Nation) committed terrorism on a scale that makes 9-11 look like an exercise. In the past many people believe the French had a right to kill Germans, as they were invading their country. Why did the Germans go into France? Was the French government not cooperating with the German ideology of the “New World Order?” They would not submit to the Germans demands?
Why did we go into Iraq? Was the Iraqi government not cooperating with the US? They would not submit to our demands?
I would make the correlation then, that the Iraqi people have a right to kill us as well. When we bombed Dresden it was of no military gain it was a cultural center. Yet we killed tens of thousands. The point was demoralizing the German government and it’s supporters. When we nuked Japan the point was not to disable their Navy or military capability. It was their foolish goal by attacking Pear Harbor for sure. No our point was to intimidate the entire world. To end the war by showing such a lack of concern for human life we could destroy an entire city in 15 seconds. How many casualties were sustained in Pearl Harbor? 1200+? We killed millions in Japan.
The point is this, if someone comes in your front yard and kills your pet, you do not go back to their house and murder the entire family. We have a right to “defend” our country. In this day and age “defend” means killing the enemy at any cost on any soil with as many civilian deaths as necessary.
Do terrorist attacks like these really make sense? Haven’t we been the ones to write the book on intimidation and the influencing of foreign governments, policy and ideology? These events are truly sad and my heart aches for those who have lost loved ones be they Iraqi, Afghani, British, UN forces or Americans. (all others not listed) Are we really involved in a “War on Terror” or are we the one creating the terror in the name of Democracy hoping to change the ideology and politics of the region. Does torturing Iraqi citizens not make us the very evil we purport to hate.
“Terrorism-The unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons.”
Who is to say that being “against us” is necessarily a bad thing?
