Asian American Empowerment - GOP Columnist Defends World War II Internment, Iraq Prison Torture

Bigoted, racist people like this still exist, ones who think that the internment of JAs and the treatment of Iraqi prisoners is justifiable. Debbie Daniel is a weekly columnist for the popular Web site GOP USA, which describes itself as "Bringing the Conservative Message to America." Write her a letter and let her know how you feel. -- Mel

We Don't Expect Americans To Act Like That?

By Debbie Daniel
©2004 GOP USA
May 19, 2004

We're better than that . . . we have a higher standard of behavior . . . we treat people differently because we're Americans? Is this what I'm hearing?

Who in the world are we fooling? I agree we are better than that, but I'm here to tell you, if we don't get the same mind set these killers have, it's over.

You have to meet the enemy where he is. You have to get inside his mind; to think like he does or you can't win.

It wasn't like us to drop the atom bomb on Hiroshima, but we had to.

It's not like us to use certain tactics to get information, but we have to.

These are not refined people with manners, who will sign papers and say they will treat our prisoners humanely.

Our President couldn't have said it any plainer; we're dealing with the "Axis of Evil" . . . in other words - Satan himself.

Some people have been upset that some of the Iraqi prisoners were mistreated. We're at war . . . it doesn't bother me that they may have been stripped naked and had cold water thrown on them.

If they're not willing to give us information, do you think we should have them over for a steak dinner to see what questions they will answer? My question is: How cold is the water?

We took 120,000 Japanese Americans - two thirds were citizens of the United States - and locked them up during World War II. We put them inside barbed-wire fencing; we didn't strip them of their clothes - we stripped them of their dignity; took them from their homes; caused many to lose their businesses, because we could not take a chance that any one of them might hurt us. None did, but we still couldn't take that chance . . . we were at war.

Emotions were high; we had just been hit like never before, but now we've been hit worse, and we're afraid of humiliating the prisoners?

We're supposed to be shown more photos of this humiliation, and yet I've been "denied," or should I say "protected," from seeing: Daniel Pearl decapitated; four American construction workers burned alive; Nick Berg's head sawed off with a dull blade and placed in the pit of his back; hundreds of people jumping from towers to escape the terror of fire - only to be met with a horrible death, and the media wants to show us a female soldier standing over an Iraqi prisoner with a cigarette in her mouth "acting" like she's going to make him a eunuch?

Yes, that's humiliating . . . and it's especially humiliating for an Iraqi prisoner who does not have much use for a woman anyway. Women are so worthless to these men that I'm sure they would have rather been shot than submit to this "degradation" rendered by a female.

Trust me, this is not my "cup of tea," but we're all soldiers now . . . there's a war out there and we better be prepared to fight it. Sometimes you've just "got to do what you've got to do."

I'm learning that humiliation to these Middle Eastern men is the worst kind of abuse. But I also understand that important information was extracted because these tactics were used.

Our media wants the world to know how terribly we mistreated these prisoners. Why don't they show us pictures of how badly we've been mistreated?

Let's start with the World Trade Center. I don't care how gruesome it is, I need to see the horror of people forced to jump to their deaths. I don't care how graphic it is, I need to see Daniel Pearl beheaded, and I don't care that I should be protected from seeing Nick Berg's head "sawed off," I need to get mad again . . . real mad.

I'm tired of being lulled into news stories of how many people are without jobs; of how many polls were taken today, and why people don't like George Bush.

Who cares about any of this if we're all dead?

There is only one "story" on the minds of our enemy . . . kill Americans at all costs.

Why am I not "able" to see these pictures? Why is it I can only see what our soldiers are doing wrong? I don't condone rapes in these prisons; I don't condone killing people for no reason; but we're at war, and unless we walk in our soldiers' shoes . . . we have no idea what precipitated any of this.

So, I'm forced to make a judgment by only what the media allows me to see? Is that how it is?

Pictures are powerful weapons, and the media is using them against us, to crystallize in our minds, the scenes of how "cruel" we are.

Is my impression of this war to be formed by what six or seven misled soldiers did? Maybe it's rampant, I don't know. Just show me everything; don't pick and choose to spare me pain.

But, you know what's so ironic about all this? Americans pay hard earned money to go to movies to see thrillers of people being bludgeoned to death . . . throats slit . . . eyes gouged out, and we do that in the name of good entertainment. We don't think a thing about it.

But don't show us this? Because we can't handle it?

We even try to reproduce "reality" situations for our viewers on television so they can get an idea of the "real thing."

Well, what more reality is there than to see a real live American citizen have his head sawed off? I don't think we need to be entertained, but I do think we need to be educated.

This is real. Let me decide.

They protest when we've seen a single picture of a coffin; a young woman loses her job for taking a photo of several flag-draped coffins. C'mon people, I'm a big girl . . . Show me the pictures!!

It's not something I've longed to see, but this is what the enemy is counting on . . . that we Americans won't have the stomach for this kind of violence, and we'll call the whole war off.

I have wrestled with this for several days, because in my heart, I don't want to see another human being brutalized, nor do I want it held from me because I'm not strong enough to handle it.

Yes, it's easier to turn my head and deny this is happening, but I need to be confronted with the reality of this war . . . I do not want to become complacent . . . I need to be reminded every single day of the price we pay for freedom. Show me the pictures!

The media needs to stop acting like the "Emotion Police."

They don't want people to get worked up over this . . . they just show images that make us feel guilt and shame.

No! Shame on the media. I'm furious that they do not allow me to make an adult assessment of what's going on.

So yes, I expect Americans to act exactly like this, because we're at war . . . and that makes all the difference.