Banana Republics Jail Their Predecessors, Mr. President

In America we marvel at ourselves each election day.  Every candidate, pundit and news reporter at some point during the evening will laud our "peaceful transfer of power."

We distinguish ourselves from Latin American countries and unstable Europeans whose leaders, after assuming power, make their first order of business to jail, exile or even kill their political opponents.

While doing the same to Republicans might be the fantasy of left-wing fringe groups such as ACORN, Code Pink and MSNBC, I thought at least President Obama would respect Americanism.

Every time I give Obama the credit of an American soul he proves me wrong again by showing he has the pith of a foreigner.

President Obama left open the idea that he might prosecute Bush Administration officials over how they interrogated terrorists.

Unfortunately the President hasn't announced how he intends to deal with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the planner of al-Qaeda's September 11 attacks, the 1993 World Trade Center attacks, the Bali nightclub bombings and who is linked to Richard Reid, the shoe bomber.

President Obama has either lost touch with reality as to who are the bad guys in the world, or he never had it.

To win an election in America is commendable.  To change America so much as to move the country off it's Capitalist moorings while criminalizing past Presidencies simulates an act of treason.

To say that waterboarding is "torture" is nothing more than a pretext the President will use to jail political opponents, as is the practice in Banana Republics.

Here's a tip for the President:  Should you ever find yourself in a torture chamber and they hand you a menu to choose what they will do to you that day, pick the waterboarding. It involves fear not pain, and when it's over you are fine.  That's not torture.  If you want to know what torture is, take a look at John McCain's arms.

If you read the Geneva Conventions in hopes of finding a list of interrogation procedures that are "torture" and those that are "not torture" you'll be terribly disappointed.  There are no lists.  The Geneva Conventions don't say what procedures can be used in interrogation.

Here is the incredibly vague "guidance" the Conventions give on avoiding things that may be "torture:"

(a) Violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture;

(b) Taking of hostages;

(c) Outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment;

(d) The passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples.

(By the way the above applies to "High Contracting Parties" to the Geneva Conventions, which al-Qaeda is not).

The problem is, that language is so vague one Court might find waterboarding is torture.  Another might find mere name-calling is so "humiliating" it is torture.

What was lost on the media regarding the inappropriately named "torture memos"  (they are anti-torture memos) of the Bush Administration was that President Bush intended to define acts of torture more clearly, so that our military leaders would not end up someday before some foreign-run Kangaroo Court who could rely on the vagueness of the Geneva Conventions to hang them.

What no one realized was that the Kangaroo Court would be run by Democrats and the chief prosecutor of those protecting us from terrorists would be named Barack Obama.

I remind the President of an American military man who was also involved in clandestine efforts against America's enemies, as is the very men Obama wishes to prosecute today.  His name was Nathan Hale.  His hanging helped fuel the American commitment to revolution. 

Perhaps the President should consider that bit of history with a cup of "tea." 

Comments

[ambrosiajr]

I think what we have to ask ourselves is, would we want another country to do that to our citizens. I think not. Can you imagine the outrage? Its just plain wrong. Waterboarding one human being 266 times? That's not instilling fear. That's torture.