The media insist on labelling those who American and Iraqi forces are battling in Fallujah as "insurgents." This improper use of language legitimizes what is a repulsive collection of Islamists and facists united in their determination to deprive the Iraqi people of representative government and fundamental freedoms. Maj. Gen. Richard F. Natonski, commander of the 1st Marine Division properly characterized the terrorists in Fallujah in the Washington Post today, "In almost every single mosque in Fallujah, we've found an arms cache. We've found IED factories. . . . We've also seen the use of schools for the storage of weapons. This is the enemy that we fight. It doesn't respect the religious mosques or the children's schools."
The Post article also described a hostage discovered shackled to a wall by his wrists and ankles in a house that marines were searching in Fallujah. "The man, who identified himself as a taxi driver from nearby Abu Ghraib, said he had been kidnapped by men who refused to give him food or water and beat him with electrical cords during 10 days of captivity. ... Speaking to the marines, the freed hostage said that, "when his captors fled, he told them he would die without food or water. They responded: "We brought you here to die.""
Using schools and mosques as staging points? Kidnapping common people for no apparent reason? These sound more like the actions of Islamists and Baathists than insurgents. Would that the media understood the difference.
In National Review today, Michael Ledeen argued that Iraq is but a battlefield in the war against terrorism. Echoing the principal theme from, "The War Against the Terror Masters," his dated but still relevant book, Ledeen asserted a pattern of cooperation between Sunni and Shi'ite terror organizations and the regimes in Syria, Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia that orchestrate and support them. Ledeen contended, and I agree, that winning the war against terrorism will require confronting the "terror masters" in Damascus, Tehran, and Riyadh using military and polical means.
"... an air marshal forced his way into the lavatory at the front of his plane after a man of Middle Eastern descent locked himself in for a long period.
The marshal found the mirror had been removed and the man was attempting to break through the wall. The cockpit was on the other side."
This, and much more disturbing evidence that terrorists are casing our air transportation system in the Washington Times.
Following is an open letter circulated by The Federalist from a Marine Corps officer serving in Iraq.
“This is an open letter to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, "Islamic Response," and the rest of the so-called al-Qa'ida "insurgents" in Iraq and elsewhere. We don't have an e-mail address for these swine -- though we are closing in on their snail-mail address, but we are forwarding this letter to Federalist Patriots around the world in the hope you good people will forward it to as many other Patriots as possible to rally prayer and support for our fellow Marine, Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun. Should these al-Qa'ida pigs spill his blood, we want them to rest assured that the contents of this letter will eventually be nailed to their foreheads. Thank you for your assistance.)
To al-Qa'ida terrorists in Iraq:
I see that you have captured a U.S. Marine, and that you plan to cut off his head if your demands are not met. Big mistake. Before you carry out your threat I suggest you read up on Marine Corps history. The Japanese tried the same thing on Makin Island and in a few other places during World War Two, and came to regret it. Go ahead and read about what then happened to the mighty Imperial Army on Tarawa, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. They paid full price for what they did, and you will too.
You look at America and you see a soft target, and to a large extent you are right. Our country is filled with a lot of spoiled children who drive BMWs, sip decaf lattes and watch ridiculous reality TV shows. They are for the most part decent, hard working citizens, but they are soft. When you cut off Nick Berg's head those people gasped, and you got the media coverage you sought, and then those people went back to their lives. This time it is different. We also have a warrior culture in this country, and they are called Marines. It is a brotherhood forged in the fire of many wars, and the bond between us is stronger than blood. While it is true that this country has produced nitwits like John Kerry, Michael Moore, Howard Dean and Jane Fonda who can be easily manipulated by your gruesome tactics, we have also produced men like Jason Dunham, Brian Chontosh and Joseph Perez. If you don't recognize those names you should. They are all Marines who distinguished themselves fighting to liberate Iraq, and there will be many more just like them coming for you.
Before the current politically correct climate enveloped our culture one of the recruiting slogans of our band of brothers was "The Marine Corps Builds Men." You will soon find out just how true that is. You, on the other hand, are nothing but a bunch of women. If you were men you would show your faces, and take us on in a fair fight. Instead, you are cowards who hide behind masks and decapitate helpless victims. If you truly represented the interest of the Iraqi people you would not be ambushing those who come to your country to repair your power plants, or sabotage the oil pipelines which fuel the Iraqi economy. Your agenda is hate, plain and simple.
When you raise that sword over your head I want you to remember one thing. Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun is not alone as he kneels before you. Every Marine who has ever worn the uniform is there with him, and when you strike him you are striking all of us. If you think the Marines were tough on you when they were cleaning out Fallujah a few weeks ago you haven't seen anything yet. If you want to know what it feels like to have the Wrath of God called down upon you then go ahead and do it. We are not Turkish truck drivers, or Pakistani laborers, or independent contractors hoping to find work in your country. We are the United States Marines, and we will be coming for you.”
On this Memorial Day, to every veteran, but especially to those who secured freedom with their lives, you are heroes. Thank you!
From The Edge of England's Sword, refreshing candor on the Abu Ghraib scandal:
"I have recently been thinking about the scene in A Few Good Men, where Tom Cruise says he wants the TRUTH and Jack Nicholson yells back "you can't handle the truth". I was hoping for a Nicholson style outbreak when Rumsfield et al were being questioned by the Senate. I want him to yell it at every pontificating journalist and opinionista. Hell, I want to yell it from the roof tops. The truth is war is a hard, messy, deadly affair. It is not a romantic game of bravery and daring. It is a hard slog, that is trying at the best of times and wrenching and torturous and terrifying most of the time."
There may be scandal in the photographs- there is certainly scandal in their publication. If taken for gratuitous personal use by our soldiers, there is no excusing the photographs. If taken for purposes of intimidation to gain cooperation and information from hardened Baathists, the strategy behind the photographs can be explained and excused. That the photographs circulated freely amongst the soldiers who took them points toward the former explanation. That Jeremy Spivits testified that freelance violence by soldiers guarding the prisoners was common in reinforces this explanation.
It would seem that Military Intelligence operated in Abu Ghraib with insufficient firewalls, and that soldiers guarding prisoners operated with insufficient guidance and supervision. In the combination of these oversights, abuse was almost predictable. The soldiers implicated must and no doubt will be punished. More importantly, the soldiers must not be sacrificed to save the careers of officers in the chain of command who are ultimately responsible for the scandal.
On the subject of torture, Mark Bowden wrote an excellent essay for The Atlantic Monthly examining the subject- its uses, its impact on torturer and torturee, and its effectiveness in gaining information. (I hasten to credit Gabrielle for suggesting that I read the article.) Bowden concluded that some level of torture can be a necessary evil to protect civilization, and he suggested a method (with which I disagree) for judicial regulation of mild torture under extreme circumstances.
Later in the article, Bowden described an interview with Alistair Hodgett and Alexandra Arriaga of Amnesty International, who oppose torture in any circumstances:
"I showed the two an article I had torn from that day's New York Times, which described the controversy over a tragic kidnapping case in Frankfurt, Germany. On September 27 of last year a Frankfurt law student kidnapped an eleven-year-old boy named Jakob von Metzler, whose smiling face appeared in a box alongside the story. The kidnapper had covered Jakob's mouth and nose with duct tape, wrapped the boy in plastic, and hidden him in a wooded area near a lake. The police captured the suspect when he tried to pick up ransom money, but the suspect wouldn't reveal where he had left the boy, who the police thought might still be alive. So the deputy police chief of Frankfurt, Wolfgang Daschner, told his subordinates to threaten the suspect with torture. According to the suspect, he was told that a "specialist" was being flown in who would "inflict pain on me of the sort I had never experienced." The suspect promptly told the police where he'd hidden Jakob, who, sadly, was found dead. The newspaper said that Daschner was under fire from Amnesty International, among other groups, for threatening torture."
""Under these circumstances," I asked, "do you honestly think it was wrong to even threaten torture?""
"Hodgett and Arriaga squirmed in their chairs. "We recognize that there are difficult situations," said Arriaga, who is the group's director of government relations. "But we are opposed to torture under any and all circumstances, and threatening torture is inflicting mental pain. So we would be against it.""
There you have it... by the standard of Amnesty International the life of every human being could be at stake, and the threat of torture would not be acceptable. It goes without saying that, in Amnesty International's opinion (an opinion shared by the Ted Kennedy wing of the Democrat party), saving the lives of a few good men serving America in Iraq would not be reason enough to man-handle Islamist thugs. Idealism is sometimes to be admired, but not when it is reduced to the level of silliness, and certainly not when the lives of decent people are at stake.
Pat Tillman declined a multi-million dollar contract with the Arizona Cardinals of the National Football League to join the United States Army after the Islamist attack on September 11. In doing so, he shunned publicity, insisting that he was no more special than any other man in uniform. He was right; every soldier fighting in the war against terrorism is a hero.
Tillman was killed in combat in Afghanistan today, fighting for things about which he cared deeply enough- country, duty, honor and freedom- to sacrifice the immense rewards he had reaped and was poised to continue reaping at the pinnacle of secular American society. He recognized that his achievements were possible because America secures life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all of her citizens, and that this patrimony requires defending if it is to be passed on to future generations.
Fabrizio Quattrocchi went to Iraq as a contractor to an American security company to earn sufficient money to marry and set up home in Italy. Earlier this month he was kidnapped, forced to dig his own grave, and then shot in the neck by Islamists. Quattrochi too is a hero. To the last moment, he defied his murderers who filmed what they hoped would be a means of humiliating and intimidating the Italian people. Instead, Quattrocchi tried to remove the hood placed over his head, and his last words were audible on the videotape, “Now I'll show you how an Italian dies.”
Al Jazeera, the Islamist mouthpiece that masquerades as a news station, refused to broadcast the kidnappers tape of the execution claiming that it was too bloody. In fact, al Jazeera does not back away from airing any footage that advances the Islamist cause. In this case, al Jazeera chose not to broadcast a Western hero defying Islamist bigots even unto death because doing shows Islamism as the bullies game that it is.
While liberals in the Western world oppose the war against terrorism in terms that sound moral, but really boil down to a concern for material convenience, Tillman and Quattrocchi demonstrated that life becomes moral when we struggle for freedom. A prosperous life is good, but not at the price of enslavement. A peaceful death is good, but not at the price of humiliation. There are times when good men are confronted by evil and the only moral response is action and defiance. We live in such times- Islamism is an objective evil. Tillman and Quattrocchi are heroes because in living and dying, they answered the moral call for action and defiance. In living and in dying the made the world a better place, they shall not be forgotten.
I received the following message this morning from a friend in the Marine Corps who is fighting the good fight in Iraq. God bless and God speed our soldiers!
"Well to all how are ya doing? Many of you I did not get to say goodbye to, I'm sorry for that but its bad luck to say goodbye to everyone. Well as for me... I’m just a kid in a candy store, and despite those who care all I can say is that I love the challenge over here. The war and the game of it really make you be at your best.
I'll give you my last two days: I gave stitches to a kid who had a nasty cut, and gave out pencils, food, water and paper to an elementary school. Real good stuff right, then these people blow my Hummer up.... it was real close (don’t know how but everyone is alright... thank God for ballistic plates), we get into a fire fight with some punk teenagers who are just trying to be cool and oppose the coalition, find 5 artillery shells wrapped in detonation cord under our vehicle ready to go off, (engineers blew it for them... it was big) watched the local Iraqi police time beat some thief almost to death, then cap the 40 hour op off with me sitting down with the local sheik (who's full of shit and is totally against us but lies to my face for a couple of hours... ah I needed a laugh) drinking tea and smoking some clove cigarettes.
I find one gets the full spectrum of feelings over here... and my job really needs for me to be objective and present compassion... something that I’m slowly loosing.... well anyway i only have so much time in the day... so to all I’ll just say see ya soon."