What about a water-board?

By Henry Lamb

Your daughter is a member of a 12-person supply team whose job it is to carry supplies to the front lines in Afghanistan. Watching the news, you learn that an Improvised Explosive Device killed six Americans and six were taken hostage. You pray that it was not your daughter's unit.

It was.

The phone call from the Department of Defense informed you that your daughter had been captured, but that three of the culprits who planted the IED had been captured and were currently being interrogated in hopes of discovering the location of their base of operations.

You are assured that the three captured terrorists, uh, assailants will not be tortured, that they will be treated humanely, that they will have three square meals each day, a clean cell, and a defense attorney appointed and paid for by the generosity of the American tax payers.

You ask if your daughter's captors follow the same guidelines for the people they capture.

Well, no.

You are informed that this particular group of assailants has been known to gang-rape both women and men, incarcerate in 2x4x4-foot cages, and cut off appendages — including the head.

"What are you doing to find my daughter?" you ask

"We're hoping the captured assailants will tell us the location of their base camp."

"And if they do not?"

"We'll provide them with a Koran, a prayer rug, show them the direction of Mecca, and assure them that they will be comfortable and well-fed during their stay with us. This will make them more cooperative," you are told.

This policy will certainly put to rest any anxieties that parents and spouses of our fighting men and women may have. It is, after all, the enlightened policy of the new majority following the lead of the new Apologizer-in-Chief.

Here's a question on the common-sense test: This policy will cause our adversaries to think America is:

1. A compassionate nation
   
   
2. An enlightened nation
   
   
3. A stupid bunch of weaklings
   
   

The correct answer depends upon your political affiliation.

In similar scenarios in the past where terrorists — not assailants — were captured, we scared the hell — and information — out of them by pretending to drown them. There was no danger of them actually drowning, but the process, known as water-boarding, made the terrorists think they were going to drown, and it made them give up valuable information.

This procedure was called "Enhanced Interrogation Technique" (EIT). Now, this technique is called torture by the enlightened majority in Washington. This new majority appears to be convinced that by providing three squares a day, comfortable accommodations, and a defense attorney, the captured "assailants" will spill the beans better than those captured terrorists who thought they were drowning.

This politically-correct policy sees no terrorists, only minorities misguided by their poverty. This perception is not simply stupid, it is dangerous. These people live to kill Americans and America's allies. They teach their children from birth that Jews are pigs and Americans are worse. They have no respect for persuasion unless it is administered with bombs and bullets.

The current push to investigate the Bush administration officials who authorized water-boarding is nothing more than a mindless, vindictive witch hunt to heap a little more hurt on the people liberals most like to hate. If done, the reward will be a few moments of "I guess that'll show them who's boss." The damage, however, will be ongoing and disastrous. Our enemies will know they need not fear that their troops will divulge important information. They will know that their troops, if caught, will be treated with kid gloves, and eventually released, probably in America. Our enemies will be emboldened, seeing America as a nation of weaklings who will fight back with words and kind deeds, while terrorists work even harder to destroy us.

It may be easy to oppose water-boarding as an interrogation technique when it is used against people we don't know, who appear to be ignorant and unaware of what they are doing. But when a person is caught in the act of trying to kill your daughter, son, spouse, or loved one, who is not killed, but captured and hauled away to an unimaginable hell, water-boarding may be seen from a different perspective.

When a terrorist or enemy combatant is captured in the act of aggression against America or America's allies, anything short of death should be seen as a generous gift to the enemy. If there is reason to believe that the captive has information that may save the life of your loved one — or American forces, or prevent capture of Americans — then haul out the water-board, snow-board, skate-board, or baseball bat.

Any parent, husband or wife, who would not do the same — were it their loved one in the hands of the enemy — is foolish beyond belief. An administration that would not do the same — were it their soldiers in the hands of the enemy — is unworthy of the power it holds.

© Henry Lamb