Abu Ghraib Incident Doesn't Nullify War

May 12, 2004

The outcry in the wake of the Abu Ghraib prison abuses is certainly justified. Anyone who has seen those photographs cannot, in good conscience, excuse them. I have no idea what the intention of those involved was but it most assuredly was evil. Please don't hand me the line “oh, you weren't there, Phil, so you don't really know what was going on.” I don't have to be there to know wrong when I see it and those soldiers were wrong. They should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of military law and punished.

 

What's even more outrageous than the conduct of those rogue soldiers is the utter silence by many who condemned those soldiers, silence in the face of horrid atrocities on the other side. The beheading of Nick Berg, a civilian in Iraq from West Chester, Pennsylvania, is one example. Five hooded men stood behind Berg while one read a statement condemning the Abu Ghraib prison abuses. Then they took a knife, cut his head off and held it up to the camera.

 

I know the prison abuses were humiliating but they don't hold a candle to the animals out there on the other side. As they sliced Berg's head from his neck they yelled out “Allahu akbar!” which means God is great! What kind of god are these savages worshipping? And what kind of news media do we have that would find the Abu Ghraib story more newsworthy? But left-wing journalists aren't the only ones fanning the flames of American resentment.

 

I went to the ACLU website the day the Berg murder hit the news. Surprise, surprise! The front page of their website screamed the headline “Abu Ghraib Scandal Is ‘Predictable Result' of U.S. Detention Policies.” No condemnation of the Berg murder. No reminder of Daniel Pearl, who was murdered in the same manner as Nick Berg. No reminder of the 3,000 innocent people who met a horrible death on September 11 th . No mention of the nearly 1 million Iraqis murdered by Saddam Hussein's regime. Their only concern is for a handful of despicable, murderous terrorists photographed with their privates exposed!

 

Now, that's not to say that the Abu Ghraib prison abuses weren't wrong. They were. It's only to say that we need to put things in perspective. Should those soldiers involved at Abu Ghraib pay? Absolutely. But the actions of a few idiots should not derail an international war on terrorism. The two don't compare.

 

There have been war crimes and abuses ever since there have been wars. There were American abuses during World War II. Does that mean we should've apologized to Hitler and pulled out of Europe? I'm sure members of the “American Neville Chamberlain Society” thought so but FDR and Truman paid them no mind. These same voices are screaming for Rumsfeld to resign and Bush to pull out of Iraq. Again, we should pay them no mind.

 

There's one thing that we have to understand right now. There are anti-American forces at work within our borders. They disguise themselves as civil liberties advocates and respectable members of the mainstream media. Some even pose as members of the U.S. Congress and Senate. However, their goal is to destroy this country from within. They are embarrassed to be Americans and they take every opportunity to give Uncle Sam a black eye.