All I can say is go to the Atlanta Journal Constitution site on this cartoon and express your displeasure.
It’s disgusting and a further confirmation that liberals have lost their moral compass that Mike Luckovich sees a moral equivalence between the United States and al-Qaeda.
Mistakes are made in war. Americans in WWII on a few occasions did things to German or Japanese soldiers and civilians that were wrong. However, it was not United States policy to do those things and, when these things were found out, the soldiers were prosecuted and punished.
Does Luckovich and his fellow leftists believe that Hitler and Tojo were morally equivalent to Roosevelt? Sadly, the answer is probably yes.
Soldiers who have mistreated the enemy or civilians should be prosecuted and, if found guilty, punished appropriately. We have a system in place to do that. Al-Qaeda purposely pursues a course in repressing, torturing, and killing innocent people.
Further, there is no “torture” currently taking place. According to TIME Magazine, the torture at Gitmo supposedly sanctioned by the Bush administration lasted only 50 days and applied to only a few select prisoners. According to TIME:
On Dec. 2, Rumsfeld approved 16 of 19 stronger coercive methods. Now the interrogators could use stress strategies like standing for prolonged periods, isolation for as long as 30 days, removal of clothing, forced shaving of facial hair, playing on “individual phobias” (such as dogs) and “mild, non-injurious physical contact such as grabbing, poking in the chest with the finger and light pushing.” According to the log, al-Qahtani experienced several of those over the next five weeks. The techniques Rumsfeld balked at included “use of a wet towel or dripping water to induce the misperception of suffocation.” “Our Armed Forces are trained,” a Pentagon memo on the changes read, “to a standard of interrogation that reflects a tradition of restraint.” Nevertheless, the log shows that interrogators poured bottles of water on al-Qahtani’s head when he refused to drink. Interrogators called this game “Drink Water or Wear It.”
Dripping Water or Playing Christina Aguilera Music: After the new measures are approved, the mood in al-Qahtani’s interrogation booth changes dramatically. The interrogation sessions lengthen. The quizzing now starts at midnight, and when Detainee 063 dozes off, interrogators rouse him by dripping water on his head or playing Christina Aguilera music. According to the log, his handlers at one point perform a puppet show [emphasis by Stingray: oh, the humanity!] “satirizing the detainee’s involvement with al-Qaeda.” He is taken to a new interrogation booth, which is decorated with pictures of 9/11 victims, American flags and red lights. He has to stand for the playing of the U.S. national anthem. His head and beard are shaved. He is returned to his original interrogation booth. A picture of a 9/11 victim is taped to his trousers. Al-Qahtani repeats that he will “not talk until he is interrogated the proper way.” At 7 a.m. on Dec. 4, after a 12-hour, all-night session, he is put to bed for a four-hour nap, TIME reports.
…
A 24-Hour Time Out: But a much more serious problem develops on Dec. 7: a medical corpsman reports that al-Qahtani is becoming seriously dehydrated, the result of his refusal to take water regularly [emphasis by Stingray]. He is given an IV drip, and a doctor is summoned. An unprecedented 24-hour time out is called, but even as al-Qahtani is put under a doctor’s care, music is played to “prevent detainee from sleeping.” Nine hours later, a medical corpsman checks al-Qahtani’s pulse and finds it “unusually slow.” An electrocardiogram is administered by a doctor, and after al-Qahtani is transferred to a hospital, a CT scan is performed. A second doctor is consulted. Al-Qahtani’s heartbeat is regular but slow: 35 beats a minute. He is placed in isolation and hooked up to a heart monitor, TIME reports.
Maybe I’m wrong, but this torture policy, which was only in place for 50 days and applied only to a few detainees, is not even remotely comparable to sawing the heads off of our soldiers.
Mike Luckovich should be ashamed of himself. If he thinks that the United States and radical Islam are morally equivalent, then he should move to Iran or Saudi Arabia for 6 months and try writing cartoons for their newspapers. It would be quite an educational experience for him, which is something that he desperately needs.
