Did Senator Durbin Mean What He Said?
Of course he did. And I read about it and thought perhaps cooler heads would prevail. He’d say ‘I didn’t mean any blah, blah, blah’, his supporters would say ‘he never meant to blah, blah, blah’ and that would be the end of it. But it seems Senator Durbin is sticking with his comments.
“If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime _ Pol Pot or others _ that had no concern for human beings,” Durbin said.
He ratcheted up the hyperbole a couple notches, managing to lump us in with every group of bad guys for the past 100 years, while reciting this:
On a couple of occasions, I entered interview rooms to find a detainee chained hand and foot in a fetal position to the floor, with no chair, food or water. Most times they urinated or defecated on themselves, and had been left there for 18-24 hours or more. On one occasion, the air conditioning had been turned down so far and the temperature was so cold in the room, that the barefooted detainee was shaking with cold. . . . On another occasion, the [air conditioner] had been turned off, making the temperature in the unventilated room well over 100 degrees. The detainee was almost unconscious on the floor, with a pile of hair next to him. He had apparently been literally pulling his hair out throughout the night. On another occasion, not only was the temperature unbearably hot, but extremely loud rap music was being played in the room, and had been since the day before, with the detainee chained hand and foot in the fetal position on the tile floor.
Stacked up against the abominations perpetrated against the people of Russia, Europe, Cambodia, et al, broken thermostats and Christina Aguilera seem a little weak as the basis for such withering criticisms. (Ask any Jarhead/Soldier patrolling Baghdad how hot it is, every day.) Express your concerns rationally Senator, without resorting to cheap grandstanding learned at the Ted Kennedy School of Dubious Pronouncements. Maybe someone would listen.
UPDATE: Feel free to EMAIL the Senator. I did. If you love us, let us know what you said. We’re nosy that way.
Humanity...or the Lack Thereof | tree hugging sister | 
June 16, 2005 11:08 am
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Durbin is a moron and an asshole. This is news?
I heard about this on Laura Ingraham’s show yesterday (Could she BE anymore awesome? I think not.) and couldn’t believe it. What an asshole. I’m ashamed to be from Illinois.
We’re NAZIS? Ratcheting the temp up and down and playing Ludacris at full volume is equal to gassing 7 million Jews? Jerk.
Damn, and I really hate wearing my jackboots in July, too.
People need to mail a letter, email or call his office. And guess what? I have that page right HERE.
I live to serve.
Let us know if you rip one off to him. I’ll go first.
Moi:
Senator Durbin ~ I find your recent comments comparing the Armed Forces of the United States to mass murderers reprehensible and irresponsible. You owe an apology to every person who has ever worn our uniforms and served their country. You owe an apology to every American who has seen wrong and tried to right it, without resorting to overblown, overwrought and dishonorable grandstanding. Save your blowhard hyperbole for those who deserve it, or are you incapable of making a rational decision when to use such language?
The detainees deserve every protection from inhumane treatment, AS DO OUR ARMED FORCES. Our Marines and Soldiers face unspeakable horrors in the event of their capture. Hvae you forgotten that, in your manuevering for sound bites on CNN?
Shame and for shame, Senator.
Unfortunately, THS, unless it comes from a constituent it usually goes nowhere.
“Could [Laura Ingraham] BE anymore awesome? I think not.”
I think not, either. Have to see if her ad is still up on Match.com (well, the one rumored to be her, anyway). You know she was a Supreme Court clerk, too, right?
Oh sure Dave, I know that. But it accomplishes two things as far as I’m concerned.
1) I feel better.
2) The volume of email spikes in his office and that speaks volumes in itself.
Beg to differ on one point, Sis.
“detainees deserve every protection from inhumane treatment”
No, they do not. The Taliban army regulars deserve protection, the others do not. They get it because that’s the way we are, not because they “deserve” it.
Nope, beg to differ, Mr. Summers.
They get it because they deserve it which IS the way we are. What we wish we could do, they richly deserve. The thing that makes us ‘us’ is that we won’t act on what we know they deserve.
Once we start distinguishing between those who deserve humane treatment and those we can fudge around a bit on, there is no longer an ‘us’ or ‘them’, for we are become them.
Still beg to differ. We won’t torture or treat inhumanely because we don’t do that, not because they deserve humane treatment. As you said, we won’t act on what we know they deserve.
However, I think you are wrong to say we can’t start distinguishing between those who deserve humane treatment and those who don’t (and I don’t mean we can start “fudging” around). I mean trying them in military court, with appropriate punishment.
This is an area in which I will, no doubt, differ from everyone here. We should be trying and executing (if convicted) any who are not covered by the Geneva Conventions. I am dead serious. The Geneva Conventions and “international law” mean nothing if they are not enforced against those who violate them.
From “Face The Nation” last Sunday and I think they’re both right.
Sen. GRAHAM: …The idea of leaving an Iraq at a date certain would be a mistake. If we lose in Iraq, if the
insurgents drive us out and moderate forces are succumbed to by terrorists, we’ve lost a big
battle in the war on terror. The only way we’re going to win this war, Bob, is not to kill a
bunch of terrorists but to empower moderate people to set up democracies in a place like Iraq
and change the culture of the Mideast.
And one last thing about Guantanamo Bay that really bothers me. I’m a military lawyer. And
let me tell you, we can do better in terms of the policies and procedures we have in place at
Guantanamo Bay if we work with the administration. But the Koran abuse, those five
allegations about mishandling the Koran, we have regulations, very pointed, about how we
allow people to exercise their religious rights. The people we have in that jail would kill us all
because of their religion.
Let’s don’t lose sight of the big thing. The people who are in Guantanamo Bay have been
captured on battlefields. They need to be treated decently, they need to be held accountable,
but the world needs to give us some credit. We’ve got regulations protecting religious practices
of people who hate us and would kill us. There’s a big difference between us and the enemy,
and I don’t want to blur that distinction. And I think the world needs to give us some credit.
Sen. LEAHY: I think there is an enormous difference between us. But I think what we’re
losing sight of around the rest of the world that we have always stood for the rule of law. And
at Guantanamo, we have not followed it. We have not done the things we should. That’s why
I say charge them or release them…
Sen. GRAHAM: I agree with that.
Sen. LEAHY: …or follow the military commissions and make it transparent, not only to the
Congress but to the rest of the world what’s going on. We haven’t done that. And we
diminish–I mean, we are such a great and wonderful country because of our rule of law, and
we’re not following our own rules. And that is hurting us around the world.
I think Leahy’s full of it. To say we have not followed our own rules in Guantanamo is rank bullshit. The detainees have been treated better than any other POWs in history, including the ones that don’t deserve POW status. The very few infractions that have occurred have been punished.
I do agree with him about getting on with the trials, but I’m also dead certain that there will be no suitable punishment because I don’t believe the Bush Administration has the balls to do it as it should be done.
And please forgive if it sounds like I’m going overboard, it’s very possible. I am angry right now, too angry to write the post I want to write (not this subject, one on Fred “needs to die” Phelps and his bunch of hatemongering scum). So apologies if it sounds like I’m taking it out here, i don’t mean to.
How about we suggest that the detainees are treated just as civilians detained by them? A few heads sawed off, etc. THEN, even the most hardcore dem would have to admit something is not right on the OTHER side for once. Maybe worth fighting for? No, as Kos said, screw them (us).
Yeah, I’ve had it too
I apologize if anyone is offended by this post. I’m putting the entire thing in extended entry. Don’t read if you are easily offended, but I’m that angry….
Perhaps we should use the treatment (by his captors) of the now-rescued Australian Mr. Wood as the standard for GITMO. Imagine spending your days blindfolded, handcuffed, and being on a bread and water diet.
I think it would be great for one of our intrepid MSM journalists to go under cover in a “compare and contrast” expose of how the two sides treat their respective prisoners.
Of course, the story probably would never be finsished…
If only I knew was “finsished” meant…
(Thought you did…?)
I think it would be great for one of our intrepid MSM journalists to go under cover in a “compare and contrast” expose of how the two sides treat their respective prisoners.
They should let the Red Cross and AmNasty (As JeffS’ SIL calls it) walk through GITMO, take pictures, scribble their little reports ~ be completely transparent about their ‘living’ conditions. (Make sure they note the fact that the wardens use the prison public address system for Muslim calls to prayer SEVEN frickin’ times a day. If I was a GUARD, I’d be petitioning about cruel and unusual treatment.) Keeping all the simple stuff like that secret just fuels these idiotic conspiracies and feeds the insurgencies. They can LIE about whatever they WANT to because of the way the whole Gitmo thing’s been handled. Get it out there (hoping it’s not too late) and then they can STFU.