Wednesday, October 13, 2004

 
There Will Always Be An(Lynndie)England
Or: Too Late For Hanging Pregnant Cads
Or: Kennedy's Ghraib-Ass Politics
Or: When The Flip-Flopper Calls "Heads"-We Lose
Or: Ramesh's Big But

AOL News reports the birth of a boy to Pfc. Lynndie England. She still faces trial and the prospect of something like 38 years in prison for alleged abuses committed at Abu Ghraib. It may only seem like a long time has passed since the MSM rubbed our noses incessantly in the scandal, but enough has passed to complain about the relative rarity of defence of the accused soldiers in the press and legislatures. I fear I became something of a "nuisance"(tho not a terrorist)in pestering some NRO writers to watch "Breaker Morant," but will reccommend this to any readers as well. In brief, the counsel for the member of the Bushveldt Carbineers noted the extreme "provocations" by the Boers and that if one side departs from the rules of war, so too will the other.
About a year in the pen seems about right for Lynndie, assuming her victims suffered no more pain and indignity than did she in recruiting her little England into the world.
The most memorable answer to Teddy's vile exaggeration that the Saddam's torture chambers were opened under new management by us, is that (Jonah?)there is a difference between putting panties on a head and cutting one off. About the only mitigating circumstances that come to mind for TK's decades of appeasment are that one of his brothers was murdered by a communist and that another was cut down by a Palestinian Arab*.
I came away from "Breaker Morant" and coverage of events at Abu Ghraib with the opinion that the defendants deserve some understanding and leniency on the grounds that they were put on something of a slippery slope by their commanders. And with some sympathy for Lord Kitchener and like, Mark Steyn, am glad that Rumsfeld's head held its own against those who would have taken it some months ago.
Someone else has to have noted that whether John "Petain" Kerry observes that some of our guys "cut off heads" in Vietnam or that people are being beheaded in Iraq, he puts the blame on America first and foremost.
Not much to add to JD's and Steyn's primers for hostages, but have long mused that while not sure that I would "go to my god like a soldier" if subjected to torture, I can imagine hearing nothing better than something like, "You die now, pig, because your criminal government has not negotiated but has instead murdered one hundred of our brothers!" -Wish our military had taken the time and resources to give death sentences to thousands of scum captured out of uniform rushed through military courts. And that hundreds of those sentences had been carried out(the CIC should screw the appeals)in response to our military and civilian casualties. One of the brighter moments for the defense in "Breaker Morant" occurred when a witness for the prosecution admitted that the practice of forcing Boer prisoners to ride trains put a halt to those trains being bombed. Such tactics might not be as effective in Iraq, but, heck, Sen. Kerry, might they not still help others to shoulder the burden borne by our troops?
Thanx to JD for rerunning the classic, if corny, Horatio at the gate stuff. -haven't tired of it, but the inner pessimist always remembers(in my case not from reading WS, but from its excerpt in (lapsed subscription here)"Soldier of Fortune" magazine):
"GLENDOWER: I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
HOTSPUR: Why, so can I, or so can any man;
But will they come when you do call for them?"
The juxtaposition of "Ramesh's Big But" with "Ghraib-Ass" wasn't enough to justify its unfairness, but should note that Sameulson's brief piece seemed to count only the numbers of Hispanics in poverty without at least mentioning the arguments that "But for" legal and illegal immigration of those with "low skills," many citizens now living in poverty would have risen out of poverty or not fallen into it.

*Sirhan Sirhan was not was not born a Muslim:
"....Sirhan Sirhan was born on March 19, 1944 to an Arab Christian family in Jerusalem. His father was a highly paid worker with the city's water department who adequately supported his wife and seven children...." -Many thanks to Google and the author of the above, Denise Noe, whose prose was almost, er, adequate for a "Tom Swiftie."(webcom.com/~wutka/html/swifties.html seems safe for all ages -eg."This is my favorite Chinese soup," said Tom, wantonly.)
Tho like most Americans, I favor universal(not single-payer) health insurance, words are not adequate to express my outrage over the use of misleading qualifiers such as "adequate" or "basic" or "decent" health care..
Oh, and shouldn't have called Lynndie a "cad"-that might be appropriate for putative DNA donor Charles "Grim Reaper" Garner if he hasn't offered to make an "honest woman"(will acknowledge the cogent objections to that term expressed by Sid Vicious in the movie "Sid & Nancy)of her.