It seems the liberals and their MSM cohorts have decided to take their stand on GITMO and side with the terrorists against the evil Americans. Lots of articles and op-ed pieces out today which make clear the summer political battle lines are now drawn. I feel for the left, they have been reduced to standing with the terrorists and against our efforts to stop the terrorists from killing. Not a good place to be.

Let’s start with the Washington Post. Richard Cohen, a stalwart liberal, feels sorry for Dick Durbin because everyone is piling on. To prove his point he makes these statements:

Those of us who have read accounts of the gulag or of the interrogation methods of the Nazis and similar barbaric regimes are familiar with the infinite varieties of torture. Maybe for that reason I did not feel it was anything of a stretch for Sen. Dick Durbin to refer to those regimes when reciting what an FBI agent had seen at Guantanamo Bay

You know Richard, even though you may be well ‘read’ (as opposed to experienced) you have to find more than something in common to make a comparison of equality. Yes, all four examples have guards, cells, razor wire, shackles, dogs, etc. But all four did not have showers which killed millions of innocent men, women and children, whose crime was simply being Jewish. Are the killers being held at GITMO being slaughtered for their religion, along with their families? Coming from someone like you this is a stunningly ignorant comparison. Three of the four examples have the distinct honor of being factories for mass graves of innocent people who were removed from the face of the earth. That is why the are not equal sir. (Sorry for the yelling – but it seems Mr. Cohen is a bit thick and I want to make sure he can focus on what is important in these comparisons, as opposed to what is marginal and trivial)

Then Eugene Robinson steps in as public defender of the terrorists, making charges that these poor violent terrorists, who have no respect for law, international law or even chivalry (since they cannot fight army to army, but go after innocent unarmed and unsuspecting men, women and children) are not getting their due process.

The problems that apparently can’t be fixed so easily are the administration’s contempt for transparency, its disregard for due process and its habit of starting things without giving proper thought to how to end them.
…
Yes, the 520 or so prisoners still at Guantanamo have been given hearings before military panels. But that’s where the lack of transparency comes in, because a secret military hearing is the same as no hearing at all.

Since all military men and women are subject to the military code of conduct and the military legal system, what you are saying Mr Robinson is the legal system that applies to our brave people on the front lines is not good enough for these killers – they deserve better? Your saying that they deserve better than those who are fighting and dying to ensure your right to make mind numbingly simplistic claims with little bearing on reality? Of course Robinson ponders this from across the bay in cuba, presumably over an iced tea. Maybe he should be personally responsible for these killers and required to pay for any problems they cause or information he cannot get from them which could save lives.

Let’s jump over to the NY Times where it is clear this is about politics and saving the liberals from oblivion – and not about GITMO or the complex subject of detaining blood thirsty mad men who want to kill us by the thousands, yet cannot be tried in open court because of all the intelligence that would be exposed. Here is Anthony Lewis doing a very poor job of hiding his priorities through the language he uses.

WHEN Vice President Dick Cheney said last week that detainees at the American prison camp in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, were treated better than they would be “by virtually any other government on the face of the earth,” he was carrying on what has become a campaign to whitewash the record of abuses at Guantánamo.

Right-wing commentators have been sounding the theme. Columnist Charles Krauthammer said the treatment of the Guantánamo prisoners had been “remarkably humane and tolerant.”

Note the comment from Cheney is a ‘whitewash’ and there are ‘Right Wing Commentators’. Tony, let me remind you that these detainees, when they behave and assist us, are treated to gourmet meals, exercise facilities, etc. When they do not behave and become violent, or have some life saving information they are all too glad to hold back, then the get treated the way they deserve. Which, while we are making comparisons, is not much different from how some violent mental patients are handled(tied down for long periods and sedated – the difference here being no sedation). Let’s not even discuss the type of care mental patients faced only a few decades ago here in our great country.

Mr. Kahtani was interrogated for as long as 20 hours at a stretch, according to the detailed log. At one point he was put on an intravenous drip and given 3½ bags of fluid. When he asked to urinate, guards told him that he must first answer questions. He answered them. The interrogator, not satisfied with the answers, told him to urinate in his pants, which he did. Thirty minutes later, the log noted, Mr. Kahtani was “beginning to understand the futility of his situation.”

This man may have had information that could mean life and death to another 3,000 innocent people facing another 9-11. And Tony is concerned he peed himself? I find it impossible to believe someone so easily disturbed by this biological process is not out now monitoring the nations pools for people peeing themselves. Geez, there must be hundreds of thousands of poor souls peeing in pools (and oceans for that matter) everday. Gawd man, why aren’t you out saving these people as well?

What all these liberals have in common is they are playing a very partisan, myopic and dangerous game – just like Dysmal Durbin is doing. They are trying to get Americans to turn on those Americans who are doing their best, as humanely as possible with barely human subjects to deal with, to protect us from another 9-11. These terrorists would gladly rip a child from an infidel women’s womb and praise allah in the process, but Cohen seems them as the victims of Auschwitz and our soldiers as the Nazis. Eugene wants these thugs to have high priced lawyers (who will charge the tax payers of course and get that new pool put in) in order to allow these people to hide their critical information for years while exposing our intelligence processes in court. And Tony just cannot stand by why someone gets warm fluid down their pants leg – no matter how much they want to kill our children.

What these liberals want from us, America, is to use these lame examples to turn on the War on Terror, Bush, and our Military. Why? It’s not because they truly care about these terrorists – they want political power. They would use this opportunity to make a play for votes. They would turn us against ourselves to get votes. They would ask us to stop hurting the poor whittle terrorists and get out of the ME (and have the hole process collapse and blow up in our faces) to get votes.

The ‘right wing’ in this country is about to balloon to include everyone who remembers these people in detention, eating rice pilaf, are lucky we did not kill them on the battlefield and be done with them. They are the lucky ones – ones with some value to us.

BTW, remember who is probably in GITMO right now and who is the target of all this liberal support and angst: Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the mastermind behind that horrible day 4 years ago. Back then we as a nation promised to never forget. Seems some have broken that pledge, a pledge we made to 3,000 fellow citizens who died a horribly and useless death. Now THAT was criminal.

UPDATE:

Bush has come out today trying to warn everyone this is one serious subject to be playing politics with:

“Make no mistake,” Mr. Bush said in an East Room press conference with European Union officials. “Many of those folks being detained — in humane conditions, I might add — are dangerous people.

“Some have been released to their previous countries, and they got out and they went on to the battlefield again,” he said. “I have an obligation, as do all of us who are holding office, to protect our people.”

To that end, Mr. Bush said he will not release Guantanamo Bay prisoners such as Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, whom he called “the mastermind of the September the 11th attack,” anytime soon.

“He is being detained because we think he could possibly give us information that might not only protect us, but protect citizens in Europe,” he said. “And at some point in time, he’ll be dealt with, but right now, we think it’s best that he be kept in custody.”

That is of course unless liberals decide his US constitutional rights are more important than the fact he wants to destroy that constitution and its rights.

UPDATE:

Michelle Malkin linked to this story on the same Cohen incoherency.