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by Adam Mcculley

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Lets try to separate the real issue of treatment of enemy prisoners from the sensationalism of a corrupt media. This process might be a bit painful, but it is very necessary. Being a 10 year veteran of the Marine corps, Iraqi war vet and having actual hands on experience in the handling of iraqi POW's I hope my statements carry some weight. What rights do they have? are they entitled to due process? The answers are simple. According to INTERNATIONAL law, as per the Geneva conventions, an enmy POW is not entitled due process because they are NOT criminal offenders. They are enemy combatents, and can legaly be held for the duration of the conflict. The point of taking enemy prisoners is twofold. First and foremost, taking enemy soldiers out of active service, thus decreasing the enemies mission-capability. The second reason is leverage and bargaining power. They can be used in exchange for Allied captives. Their rights are simple, outlined (again) by international law. They have the right to adequate shelter, food, and medical treatment. They have the right to send and receive mail, as long as it does not contain any harmful information. They have the right to be paid for their labor. Payment being a rough equivilant to an American civilian's prison wages, wich isn't very much. The bottom line is, enemy POW's are not legaly cosidered criminals, and don't need to be tried. They don't need lawyers or appeals. They are to be held as long as our government sees fit. This isn't a new policy. It has been used in EVERY war in the modern age. The media has forgotten this fact, and goes out of their way to portray our treatment of murdering terrorists as unjust. Enemy POW's are not American citizens, and not civilians, therefore they don't have the same rights as a regular Joe.(Our constitution does not apply to everybody, just the citizens of this nation.Nor does any other nations rights and laws. We are not alone on this point, it is a global standard.)As soldiers, they fall under the Uniform code of military justie (UCMJ). All American soldiers are subject to the UCMJ, a code which signifcantly diminishes ones rights. This might be viewed as cruel and unfortunate by a non-military mind, but those of us in the know, are well aware of such necessities. The buisness of war is frightening and messy. Only a few men and women have what it takes to sacrifice so much for their country. The realities can be scary when taken out of context and trumpeted as torture and barbarism. The fact is, the men we detain are killers. They make bombs, kill innocents, and fly planes into buildings. Given half a chance they would kill any American in the vicinity, just for the sake of Jihad. Many detainees publicly deny any terrorist connections. The media (without the research and due process they say are denied POW's), take these claims at face value, and splash them all over the headlines, never once considering the fact that deception and denial are part and parcel of terrorist operating tactics. about 99 percent of all American prison inmates will tell you with a straight face "I didn't do it."(I know this, I also worked in Corretions for a few years.)People who do bad things, generaly deny it. Thats a fact. Imagine the silliness of a system based on the liberal-media ideology: Prisoner is secured and transported. Prisoner is processed in. Officer asks prisoner "Did you do it?", prisoner replies "Nope" Officer responds "Woops, my bad, guess your free to go, Sorry about all this" Prisoner goes back to active service, more Americans die. And die they will. The notion that America is "picking on" Middle-Eastern people is as popular as it is untrue. The men we fight have been schooled in murder and Jihad for generations. Their only aim is destruction. They don't want peace. I'll write that again so we all let it sink in. THEY DON'T WANT PEACE. Our enemies are not imaginary. They are the same ones that killed thousands of innocent Americans on Sept. 11, 2001. I know most Americans just sort of block that out of their memory, and go on America-bashing, but it is a reality we must face. Taking, housing, and interrogating enemy combatents is another harsh reality. If they endure discomfort, so be it. A prison is not a hotel. It is not cost effective, or mission oriented to give enemy prisoners luxury accomodations. THEY are the bad guys, not the Anmerican soldiers that have the dangerous job of housing a few thousand trained killers. Whatever conditions they endure as captives are a significant improvement over the conditions of our own troops on the Iraqi battle-feild. That is a fact. Of course, most nay-sayers havn't been anywhere near the conflict they so readily condemn. They speak from a baseless, idialogical "in a perfect world" point of view. Sure, we should not mistreat enemy prisoners. It would be great if we could just hug and talk this out. But that won't ever happen. The muslim-extremist hate machine has been in place for decades, churning out suicide bombers and highjackers who's only goal in life is to kill infidels. They convince normal men and women to kill themselves for Allah. Their brainwash tactics are so extreme, so effective, most Americans can not (and do not) even fathom them. We act like our enemies aren't willfully killing themeselves along with women and children. We act like American soldiers are the monsters, because that is more safe and comforting than actually acknowledging the fact that we now face an enemy who is more committed, more dedicated, and has a will athousand times stronger than our own.

How should we treat enemy POW's? Treat them like dangerous killers. Obey the laws outlined by the Gneva convention. Don't forget that these men would kill you and your family if they could. Interrogate them so as to gain information that might SAVE AMERICAN AND ALLIED LIVES. We should not torture them. We don't. We don't decapitate them on live T.V. (as they do to their captives. It's funny, I was watching CNN one day. The headline story was American soldiers "abusing" prisoners at Gitmo. The newscaster was showing footage of Amercan troops yelling at enemy POW's. How this constitutes torture is beyond me. I was yelled at every day in the Marines. My civilian boss yells at me sometimes. Does that mean I've been tortured? Anyways, as this story was running, another story about a muslim televised beheading went across the crawl at the bottom of the screen. I thought to myself. "We yell at enemy soldiers, that gets top-billing. They cut the head off of a non-combatent captive, and it's so non-newsworthy, it ends up on the crawl. Evidence of a partisan agenda? I think so.) Bottom line? Do some research. Separate fact from fiction. You might discover the truth. That being, Our captives are treated as well as they need be. Any "abuses" real or percieved are anomelous.They are generally resultant of very natural, very human responses to the stresses of war. Again I site the "perfect world" mentalty of the nay-sayers. I guess we are supposed to send men and women into a war zone, the closest thing to hell you can find, and expect them to behave in a normal fashion. A bit too much to ask, i think. When we capture the men who have been killing our brothers, we're supposed to give them four star treatment. All those political commentators who spend their time picking apart the conduct of our brave troops would be suprised how hard it is to maintain the moral high ground when the bullets fly and people die. Trust me folks, when one is in Iraq, surrounded by destruction, fearing every car on the road is a bomb, every villager is an insurgent waiting to stage an ambush, watching friends get torn to peices by roadside bombs, being picked at by an enemy too cowardly to stand and fight like real soldiers, watching our own newscasters tell the whole world of our failure and misconduct EVERY DAY, home, and it's comfortable, sensible morality seems like it's a million miles away. WE HAVE NEVER MURDRED A SINGLE POW. The other side has never let one live, with the exception of an Italian journalist, whos freedom was bought. The money paid for her release undoubtedly went to fund more murder and destruction.Talk about a bad idea. How many guns and rockets were bought with that money? How many people died so that one woman, who had no right to even be in a war zone, could go free?( I realize journalists must report the facts, but if you go to war, and are not a trained soldier, don't be suprised when things go terribly wrong). So who is realy in the wrong here? Do we mistreat POWs? Or do we wage war? One achives victory in war by destroying the enemy, and his ability to fight. We do that by killing, bombing, destroying and taking captives. When captives are taken, they must be treated like the dangerous killers they are. (Anybody remember Jhonny Spann? The CIA operative who died in an Afghan prison uprising? If we are not a bit heavy-handed in our treatment of POW's they will do what they are trained to do. Kill us.) The American soldiers code of conduct states that an American, when captured, must do all he can to escape, or otherwise subvert the enemies attempts to maintain order and accomplish their mission. This is required of every American soldier by military law. We are not allowed to "go peacefully" Our enemies have the same practices as we. An enemy prisoner will do everything in his power to "get back" at his captors. The only way to maintain order and safety is forceful response. It's an ugly fact, but a fact nontheless. The point of this ramble is this: Maybe we should not lament the treatment of our enemies. Maybe we should lament the American men and women they kill every day. Maybe we should trust American soldiers to do their jobs. They are trained, you are not. They know international law, you don't. They do what is necessary to accomplish the mission. The Media machine and it's daily attempts to destroy the credibilty and capability of the American miltary has no interest in truth or justice. They only care about making money, and satisfying their partisan paymasters. They will never give the American public the facts. They will give you fear and outrage, justified or not. And reap millions off of it. They will aid our enemies and destroy our efforts because they want to be right. But just because they want to be right, dosen't mean they are. American soldiers are right. They fight and die for the ungrateful masses. They do their jobs even though a significant portion of this country tries to destroy their efforts every step of the way. Our treatment of enmy POW's is right. Our enemies are wrong. They have tortured,murdered and mutilated (yes mutilated...as in, chopped up.) EVERY SINGLE AMERICAN they have captured. Where, oh where is our righteous indignation over that? Why is no one outraged when we find the hacked up bodies of our sons and daughters? Why do we endlessly debate "yelling at" or "keeping enemy combatents in cramped quarters" or "binding their hands and feet for long periods of time" (even american civilian prisoners are bound during transport. Is this realy torture?) while our enemies commit unspeakable acts on our soldiers? Do enemy POW's have rights? Yes they do. Do our soldiers have rights when they are captured? No. They are tortured and murdered. And NO ONE in this nation has the courage to do the right thing and shed some light on this fact. There that word again;fact. Those are getting harder and harder to find beneath the sensationalism and partisan warfare. This thread only exists because we are force-fed half truths and opinions, whilst the facts are ignored.

Learn more about this author, Adam Mcculley.

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