by Andy Haaf
It is easy to climb up on your moral soap box firmly parked on the sidelines when you have little or no skin in the game. Threatening to destroy the careers and lives of people in the Bush administration over harsh interrogation techniques is a great example of just that. Techniques mind you which have kept this Country safe for over seven years and nobody can prove otherwise.
Or to draw a parallel to today...when the economy turns around President Obama and the Democrat Party will no doubt proudly trumpet our return to prosperity as a direct result of their policies. To question anything else will be rejected and ridiculed, would it not? So, isn't it reasonable to conclude the same for the Bush national security policies implemented these past seven plus years?
To me, torture is purely a matter of context. To quote Napoleon's loyalist and Father of the Chief Prosecutor in the movie The Count Of Monte Cristo, "Treason is a matter of dates." Or to put it simply, depending on the situation any of us would subject ourselves or others to whatever physical and/or emotional harm is required to ease the intense pain and stress we are under. Muskrat ugly also comes to mind ;) Think I am wrong? Consider this ...
To what lengths would you go if your Son or Daughter were being held captive and you knew subjecting a terrorist to harsh interrogation techniques increased the odds of them returning home safely? What if it was simply a matter of dropping the terrorist in a box with a few bugs? I say you give the green light faster than Barney Frank can suck down a strawberry blow pop (okay, pun intended).
Jeff Daniels could star in the hit movie Iraqnophobia where he leads an elite team of earwigs hell bent on finding the enemy and heebie-jeebie them into submission. The tagline of the movie could read "Say yes to torture!". Okay, for those not following, Jeff Daniels not only starred in the movie Arachnophobia but also does "Say yes to Michigan!" commercials. Stay with me people!
Or run this little experiment. Sneak up on a liberal couple and snatch their three year-old daughter. See how far you get before the husband catches you and beats you to the point of near death till you let go of her. Heck, my wife would tear off my left arm and pummel anyone who threatened our children and I would completely understand her reaction. No worries, I am a righty ;)
You see, President Bush and our defenses were caught off guard on 911. It was the equivalent of a parent not paying attention to their child at the park while a predator quietly and swiftly snatched them away. I believe President Bush has a deep and unwavering love for this Country and her people. As a result, he reacted and implemented policies as any parent or citizen would do if people they care deeply about are in danger. God bless him for that.
So, to those of you on the left who prefer adding prisoners at Gitmo to your Friends list on Facebook versus subjecting them to acts college fraternities and sororities consider "chump change", consider the following quote from Jack Nicolson in A Few Good Men ... "You friggin people have no idea how to defend a nation". Amen to that.
