I was delighted to see that Patterico is interviewing an “Army nurse who worked with Guantánamo detainees with psychological and/or behavioral problems. For six months, he spoke with detainees on a daily basis, and built a rapport of sorts with some of the most troublesome terrorists at Guantánamo.” I’m really looking forward to this series of posts. I believed from the beginning that the “scandals” at Gitmo were overhyped, typical liberal BS. I believed so strongly that our troops were doing a difficult job in a professional manner, and that Dick Durbin’s comparison of our troops to the worst regimes in history was disgraceful, that I was part of the group who created The Gitmo Cookbook as a USO fundraiser.
Anytime you have a large group of people, there will always be some bad apples. Hence Abu Ghraib. However, the people imprisoned in Abu Ghraib know better than our media, and they wish our troops were still in charge there. In spite of the scandal – which was detected and reported by the Army and known about for months before the photos came out which triggered the media feeding frenzy – our troops as a whole did conduct themselves honorably.
I believe the same is true at Gitmo. We’re going to great expense and trouble to feed the prisoners halal food, for example. And continuing interrogations there are not a waste of time – Gitmo prisoners had information on the 7/7 London bombings, for example. The worst “offenses” like Koran flushing, turned out to not be true – or at least, not committed by our soldiers, but by the terrorists themselves. Our troops are required to handle the Koran with respect, nay, dhimmitude, with gloves and strict regulations on things like holding it with both hands. They comply with that kind of thing because they are the best-trained and most disciplined fighting force in the world. They deserve our gratitude and respect, not our constant suspicion and accusations.
The man Patterico is interviewing declined to go to the media with his story, stating, “I don’t trust them to factually report anything I say. I’ve read you and trust you.”
If Gitmo is the boogeyman the left makes it out to be, if the story he tells is one of institutional abuse and military scandals, or anything for which we should be ashamed, I will apologize, take down the cookbook ad, and dispose of the remaining cookbooks. But whether this turns out to be an unpleasant wake up call or a vindication of my beliefs, I look forward to hearing what’s really going on at Gitmo from a decorated U.S. Army Major.
