Press Action ::: No Photos

Monday, May 10, 2004

No Photos

No Scandals
No Headaches
From Sandals

By Micah Holmquist

The Iraqi torture scandal has done nearly limitless damage to our great country.

It has given the enemies of freedom something new to complain about. Shiite terrorist mastermind Mugtada al-Sadr has condemned it. Many Arabs, including Iraqis, spew vile anti-American complaints about alleged abuses. While we of course pray that no harm befalls Americans as a result, that will almost certainly be the result.

Enemies of America, such as newspapers, have criticized Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, despite his many years of sterling service to America. Some even want Secretary Rumsfeld to resign.

And, most importantly, this scandal hurts America. Support for President Bush has wavered.

New allegations of alleged abuse at the hands of the brave men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces are coming out. If this continues I dare say we might not be able to invade another country next year.

If the Democrats had their way this would lead to the pullout of U.S. troops from Iraq, but we have a president who knows we cannot afford to retreat. The freedom of the world depends on our fight for liberty. The first rays of sunshine always follow the darkest part of night. The important things to dwell on are the benefits of this scandal.

President Bush has promised to investigate the situation. This is essential. The terrorists will no doubt abuse and torture Americans in the future and if we want to use their barbaric acts as a justification for the continued defense of freedom without hearing the moral relativism of this country’s enemies, we must come down hard on any service members involved. Members of the Bush Administration should be exempt, of course, as punishing them would only help the forces of evil. Blogger Kim du Toit has correctly written, “when the Islamist pricks do this kind of thing to our soldiers, I want to be able to go after them with a vengeful spirit.”

We must make it clear that the acts alleged to have occurred are, as Secretary Rumsfeld has said, unAmerican and that anyone who does not support America supports these abuses. This is an opportunity we must not waist.

At the same time this scandal must not lead to any changes in America’s practices. The Central Intelligence Agency regularly engages in practices similar to those allegedly depicted in the photographs and any move that prevents them from continuing to engage in these practices would mean weakening America’s ability to defend itself.

The scandal has showed we are winning the hearts and minds of the American people. While the cable news channels have spent far too much time covering this scandal, often at the expense of paying adequate attention to the final episode of Friends, a Washington Post-ABC News poll reveals that “six in 10 believe these were isolated incidents.” The American people are right to believe America and not the Red Cross.

This scandal even gives the brave men and women who work hard to protect us each day and night the opportunity to learn how to avoid this situation in the future. As Secretary Rumsfeld has pointed out, the military broke this story, not the press. (This is merely one more reason why Secretary Rumsfeld’s should become Secretary of Defense for life.) If the military had kept their mouth shut, none of this anti-American hogwash would be happening.

Even if the U.S. Armed Forces had spilled the beans and blown their own whistle, this story would be nothing if not for the pictures. This is hardly the first report of American brutality in Iraq, but these previous stories haven’t received anywhere near the same amount of attention because they didn’t come with pictures. Nobody cared when horrible, horrible pictures weren’t involved.

The lesson for those who keep us free and safe? Don’t take pictures, but if you do, don’t distribute them to loose lips.

The fate of our great country depends on it.

Micah Holmquist, editor of Irregular Thoughts and Links, is a Cadillac, Mich.-based writer.

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