Look at the debate about “enhanced interogation” (torture). George Washington didn’t torture the British, Lincoln didn’t torture the Southern soldiers, Eisenhower didn’t torture the Germans, Johnson didn’t torture the Vietnamese.
But Bush/Cheney started a war based on lies, tried to torture detainees into establishing a link between Al Qaida and Saddam Hussein. A link that was never there even after they conducted the torture. And the fear mongers still want to justify torture because they want us to live in fear. Fear is a control factor. A factor they have used for over 40 years.
Now we get to that great symbol of “enhanced interrogation” called GITMO. An example of man’s inhumanity to man from the land of the free and the home of the brave. Even the Bush administration released some of detainees because they were found to be innocent without even a trial.
It needs to be closed. It needs to be put into the shameful past with assurances that this type of un-American activity will never raise its ugly head again. Transfer them into places like Leavenworth, Kansas. We have maximum security prisons in this country.
Lock them down, and put them away. We did it to the terrorists that bombed the World Trade Center in 1993, we can do it now. They are not super human, they cannot escape, they ca not read minds or plot revenge, they will die in prison just like Charles Manson will. To claim they will be released in America is asinine. Quit living in fear of the boogie men. They don’t exist.
Ron Murray Sr.
Ellerbe
If all that is not enough, we have the news, which thrives on fear and bad news. We have become a country who looks away from anything good to dwell on the bad or look for the disaster waiting ahead.
The irony I find in the entire situation is the people who claim to be the "good God fearing Christians" are the very ones who spread this fear while the ones they claim are "godless" look to the future with hope and faith.
Strong faith in God is the reason I don't live in fear of what is going to happen in the future. I pray the rest of the Christian community will join me in this FAITH IN GOD!
yes it is just another document, we dont use it anymore. Mostly because of peole like you.
and something i must ask...why must we play by the rules with other countries when they don't. It has just worked out so well so far. The best thing we can do is make them fear us, make them scare to touch us....not make it how you want it...so they can laugh at us.
acording to you....blow up our cities, cut the heads off whom every you wish....we will still be nice.
You are right, we should not leave in fear of other countries, they should live in fear of us.
But you wont agree with that either because by your standard i am just another redneck racist.
My Point...things have happened in our country and right or wrong seems to fall on what color you are or how you vote. We as a people need to learn to take care of americans first and look past these usless things. Just because obma is black does not mean he was the best for the job and just because some one is a democrate does not make them right. Look through the social problems of today and you will find that it has been the librals who have destroyed our country
Those were not Bibles that belonged to the American Troops that is a very misleading statemnt. Those were Bibles that were sent to Afghanistan by a religious organization especially to be passed out to the people of Afghanistan by American troops. Your email (as your emails usually are) is a pile of rubbish!. No the American government did not want American troops passing out Bible while they are trying to establish a peaceful relationship with a predominately Moslem Country. Only a MORON like you would not be able to understand why this could promote further hostilities! A large number of people in this world are are not Christian Bonnie, GET OVER IT!!!!!!!!!!!Say your prayers tonight and please do us all a favor and ask God to give you some common sense!
Why should this government be required to print Bibles for soldiers in the field, in any language? All of the mega churches in this country operate without paying any taxes. You would think the least they could do with some of the widow's mite that is sent to them for gold furniture could be spent on buying Bibles.
Why do you spew these diversions into ever letter you comment on in this paper. You force people to respond to your ridiculous opinions.
Honey, just get over yourself and try to stray from your evil republican ways.
Now if you are not going to be able to stand our new president, then I suggest you get packed. There are planes and boats leaving South Carolina each day..... Just get on one and be done with it. George Bush failed us and all you can do now is wish for President Obama to do the same. It just won't happen. For one reason, President Obama is organized and intelligent. George bush was just plain ignorant and ....well you know the rest.
Girl you do not love this country! Yes I can call you girl cause I am older than you. I will be 85 on Monday. I welcome change because I have never been prejudiced. You say you're not prejudiced but your actions show otherwise.
GOP just go back down in them there sewers! You don't even have to leave the country, just step in and flush.
Great letter Ron Murray, you brought the point home. So don't spend too much time arguing with these fools. Ya'll have a great Memorial day!!
"A Pentagon spokesman under the Obama Administration has just acknowledged seizing and burning the privately owned Bibles of American soldiers serving in Afghanistan. The Bibles had been printed in the local Pashto and Dari languages, and sent by private donors last year to American Christian soldiers and chaplains, for distribution to American troops on overseas military bases during optionally-attended Christian worship services. Had the Bibles not been recently seized and destroyed, they could have legally been given as gifts during off-duty time to Afghani citizens who welcome our troops in their homes, as an expression of American gratitude for Afghani hospitality, promoting the democratic ideals of freedom of religion and freedom of the press."
Just think, maybe some of them would be Christians willing to share the love of Jesus with the detainees and quite possibly help Jesus save their immortal souls.
As I said, they are not super men, they are not able to read minds, or plot revenge from inside the walls of a security prison. Fear is their only factor and the American people have been inundated with fear from the Right Wing Fear Mongers of the Republican Party. It has even wormed itself into the mindset of wimping little Democrats like Harry Reid.
So a few non-coms and enlisted GI's were imprisoned for what their Commanders ordered them to do. No one in leadership above the rank of Sergeant was punished for torturing at Iraqi prisons. Do you not find that strange? I think the soldiers who took the hit on the torture should be reinstated with full back pay and honorable discharges. They were braver than those who ordered them to conduct the torture.
Are you really so blind that you believe that any torturing that was done in order to find out what the terrorist were going to do was done by enlisted non-coms?
If you were a terrorist, you were captured, you were tortured, would you tell your torturers that your comrades were going to destroy Dallas, TX when they were really plotting to destroy Chicago, IL? How would they know if you were telling the truth or just trying to get them to quit torturing you? What did John McCain do when they tortured him?
Bonnie, it wasn't Clinton who invaded Iraq. Sorry, old gal, but your blither on the subject doesn't hold water. George Bush was on vacation 8 months after taking office. His arrogance and ineptitude caused the attack on 9/11 to succeed. Then he blew it by taking his eye off Afghanistan and invading Iraq. Just another empty suit bully.
And how much has it cost us to destroy Iraq now? Plus the loss of over 4,000 brave GI's who coul have been hunting down Osama Bin Laden. By the way, Where is Osama Bin Ladin????
When was the danger imminent when we were the ones who attacked Iraq? There was no link between Sadam and Al Qaida, a fact which your mindset refuses to acknowledge. And that was the reason they waterboarded, to find that link.
I am a fool about Vietnam? Documented or Not? Does it make a difference, only a fear monger would claim it didn't. If American soldiers had been caught even waterboarding a Vietnamese prisoner they would have been court martialed and thrown in the brig. That is the diffence between your mindset now and the mindset of the American people who didn't live in fear of their neighbors. A fear promoted by your great hero's.
And Waterboarding can harm permanently. There have been people who died from the act of waterboarding and the people who were doing the waterboarding have had phsycological problems also. Some of the people who were charged with performing the waterboarding refused to participate even at the risk of disobeying a direct order. Your mindset tells you that it is better to fear, mine tells me to stand against criminal behavior even if it is just a voice in a small town newspaper.
Every expert with any credence has admitted that most of the information we got from the detainees was given before they were waterboarded. And if you look at the so-called important information that was supposedly extracted you will find that the time lines do not match up.
In case you didn't understand, let me try to educate you...THIS IS THE UNITED STATES OF AMERCA, the Great Experiment, the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave, we DO NOT fear our enemies, we DO NOT do what our enemies do, we DO NOT violate our laws, international treaties, or international laws. Not for 3 people or 3 thousand. The Constitution of the United States is not just "another document" to true Americans.
September 11, 2001 happened almost 8 months into the Bush/Cheney regime. They were warned, they ignored. 3,000 plus innocent lives were lost. The world was on our side against the terrorist. They chose to turn the world against us by invading Iraq.
George H. W. Bush watched the planes fly into the World Trade Center with the relatives of Osama Bin Ladin. If you wanted to waterboard someone and find out where Bin Ladin was hiding wouldn't they have been the perfect candidates? Instead they were secretly flown out of the country. And they have never offered up any information about their son and brother. With friends like that you don't need enemies.
Instead your mindset invaded and occupied another sovereign nation. Dick Cheney had made billions in dollars of profit from that invasion. That is war profiteering at its most disgusting level. And over 4,000 of America's bravest and finest have died as a result of Cheney's war based on lies. But in your mindset those lives were just collateral damage.
Ignorant?, gop, by whose analysis. The cyborgs of Right Wing Neo Cons.
Did you ever watch a parade of our soldiers and sailors, gop? Did you ever notice that when they march they do it like men and women of honor? When did you lose that honor, gop? Would you rather see them goose step down the street with their arms raised in salute to the despot that controls this country? Because that is what your mindset will eventually lead to in this country.
Fear will destroy the mind and the spine. And a mind and the spine is a terrible thing to lose, isn't it?
Ron..Who did you say lied?
This president?
"Earlier today, I ordered America's armed forces to strike military and security targets in Iraq. ... Their mission is to attack Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs and its military capacity to threaten its neighbors. ... Saddam Hussein must not be allowed to threaten his neighbors or the world with nuclear arms, poison gas or biological weapons."
Or this president?
"The dictator of Iraq is not disarming. To the contrary, he is deceiving. From intelligence sources, we know for instance, that thousands of Iraqi security personnel are at work hiding documents and materials from the U.N. inspectors, sanitizing inspection sites and monitoring the inspectors themselves."
Soldiers and all Americans are human beings that have a will to survive. If they believe that eminent danger exists, and they know, or even expect, that someone has info related to the attack then whats wrong with waterboarding. It does not harm the person permanently in any way.
What would you do genious? Let me try and reason with that self-centered brain of yours. Lets say you(God forbid) were responsible for the lives of American people, as George Bush was, and you knew that an attack on Americans was eminent, and you have a suspected or known terrorist in custody that your Intelligence crew believe to have info on the attack. Time is drawing near and you have a choice to make: Satisfy your LIBERAL friends or make the decision to waterboard someone to try and save American lives.
In essence it boils down to whether or not you do nothing and take a big chance of being responsible for the loss of life of many Americans or do something and try and save American lives. Choice is easy. Save lives.
Any other decision than that would be, in mine and many other Amercans opinion, UN-AMERICAN!!!
GITMO is not an example of "enhanced interrogation". What happened at GITMO with the American Soldiers and the detainees was without a doubt wrong. People like you on the "far left" like to paint the picture of that being Americas form of enhanced interrogation. Please, only hate-mongers and idiots like to believe that making fun of detainees and de-humanizing them was a way that America got information. People, quit listening to this stuff. Those soldiers were punished for what they did.
Also, how about telling the family members of those Americans who were killed by terrorists that the "boogie men" don't exist.
Last note Ron. I am sending a certified letter to Barack Hussein Obama requesting that he turn your property into a POW camp for the detainees at GITMO. I think that by just listening to your non-sense is punishment enough.
GOP GIANT