We Know This Story
In March, an incident occurred that generated little press.
The president of the United States, fed up with hearing of abuses of prisoners of war at the hands of American troops drafted a letter to the general in charge. The letter admitted there had been “sporadic cases” of violence against Islamic prisoners.
Determined to be too controversial to send by the president’s aides, the letter was suppressed.
Instead, a series of critical memoranda was drafted and sent to various department heads, and a Senate Committee was formed to investigate the matter. There, the secretary of defense made the point that the war was in transition from a military to civil government. He noted that there had been 44 documented cases of cruelty, of which 39 had resulted in court martial. In all, the secretary argued that the war “had been conducted…with self-restraint, and with humanity, never surpassed, if ever equaled, in any conflict.”
Still, the Senate’s report was damning. Backlash from around the world was bad. The people we were supposed to liberate were housing a festering rage toward our troops. Each day brought more stories of bloody guerilla fighting, and the situation seemed to be getting worse.
As I mentioned before, this all happened in March – March, 1904. The president then was another supposedly stubborn Republican, Theodore Roosevelt. The war was in the Philippine archipelago against a radical Muslim foe.
While much of our prisoner abuse was condemned at the time, it also became clear that those American soldiers unlucky enough to be captured by the insurgents were treated far worse. Here, I will spare detail because history records their torture as being about the most atrocious ever.
How did that situation end? The American soldiers who abused prisoners were convicted, the president demanded a clear and decisive victory (which our forces delivered over the most hostile cells of resistance within weeks) and the country moved on, but not before losing 4,234 sons in battle. It took another decade for us to finally withdraw troops from the region. By the time Americans left, slavery there was abolished, non-Muslim schools were established, elections were held and a new legal system replaced the radical Islamic law of sharia.
Today, there are those among us who condemn our soldiers at Guantanamo Bay for using what they say is excessive force. They call the prison camp there the “gulag of our times.” They detest and fear facing criticism from countries around the world. Some of these men are even ex-presidents.
Personally, I feel that this nation has shown tremendous restraint.
Here’s a game I think some should play: walk up to your local group of United States Marines and chant “Death to America” at them. Do this preferably in a social situation – say a local bar – and see what happens. Believe me when I tell you that the treatment our prisoners receive at Camp X-Ray would rival a day trip to a spa in comparison.
Unlike many would have us believe, the prisoners held at Camp X-Ray are indeed people who have taken up arms against us, who have conspired to destroy us. They were wrong and that is why they find themselves in Cuba.
Am I supposed to weep because a man who conspired to slash a flight attendant’s throat before smashing a plane into the World Trade Center was forced to receive a lap dance (as reported by Time Magazine)? Should I worry that Yemeni diplomats classify that as torture? Perhaps that’s why there are reports of low recruitment rates on our side, but the war effort is considered a spawning ground for recruits on the other side. Something tells me that if captured prisoners from America were virtually assured of receiving the dance of seven veils upon their capture, our ranks would swell, too.
If that’s torture, I shudder to think what would become of that man if he was sent to the local chapter of an American college fraternity. I cringe to think of the beat down he would receive if he was to visit the Platte City Pool Hall.
As I said, this situation is taking a great deal of restraint.