Thinking Through Gitmo

There has been much fuss and bother of what have so far been unsubsatiated rumors of abuse at the US terrorist detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. I've beaten up on Amnesty International over its allegations and ill-considered comparisons to the Soviet gulag system.

Time now has a cover article in its latest issue, detailing the steps taken to make the "20th hijacker" talk. The "extreme measures" taken include being shown pictures of 9/11 victims, light pushing and being placed in close physical presence of a female. Oh, the horror.

(An aside - close physical presence of a female, torture? Half the single males in America have by now already thought - "So, does Gitmo have guest suites, or something? And do they take Mastercard?" Heck, I'm thinking it. If this is torture, chain me to the wall.)

Now I have covered this ground briefly before, but more has happened, as the Democrats have decided this is a great way to beat up Bush. But this has already been covered, better than I can:
Argghhh!!! on Guantanamo, Part I.
Argghhh!!! on Guantanamo, Part II.
Rich Lowry in National Review
James Lileks - (MUST READ)

I understand the concerns, when they're well-considered, that this somehow demeans us. I disagree - we show the detainees greater respect for their religion than their Middle East co-religionists show their guests. And making someone uncomfortable does not equal torture. People need to think their words through.

We could be a lot harsher. Pirates, the earliest examples of illegal combatants, upon capture received a quick tribunal and a prompt hanging from the yardarm. The people captured today fit the description of an unlawful combatant, at least as I read the Geneva Convention (Convention I, Article 13). They were not members of a regular militia unit, nor were they local affected citizens, nor did they abide by the rules of war. Most of the detainees are Arabs, not Afghans, who decided to join bin Laden on his crusade to make his version of a true pure Islamic state. They decided to play at war. They chose poorly.

Apparently we have forgotten that we are, indeed, at war. The fact that there have been no more major terror attacks on US soil owes far more to the US response than a sudden change of heart of the adversaries. Bin Laden & Friends will hit again, unless we continue to press the initiative and kill them faster than they can kill us. This hand-wringing is embarrassing. If there are real problems, let's fix them. But this keening is proof that there are too many in this country who did not learn the lesson of 9/11 and have yet to learn the truth about our enemies - our enemies know us better than we know ourselves.

The one vulnerable point in the US war effort is the American will to fight, and there are politicans and activists aplenty who are willing to do the terrorists' work for them. So they open the cracks and spread their poison, these useful idiots, convinced that they are right and the rest of us are blind, deaf, and dumb.

I think we have forgotten. God help us if we have to once again be forced to remember.