For those of you who may be worried where the bellwether purple state of Missouri may be headed (and you should), I wanted you to know that my wife is out here policing the newspaper letters pages. Both of these letters are supposed to be published, but the editors have let her down before, so I thought I would share them with dailyKos readers. The offending missive is given first, followed by her response.
From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
"Remember 9-11"
Just a few words to those who are expressing such outrage and dismay in response to the current prison abuse scandal: Convince me that this is a new occurrence when it comes to war.
Look back on the lead story in all news media on Sept. 11 and 12, 2001, and remember that which is truly horrific and inhumane.
Ask the families and friends of those who lost their lives on Sept. 11, what they think about the Iraqi prisoners' treatment. At least the majority of those prisoners are still alive.
Cyndi Trauernicht
St. Charles
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To the editor:
In her May 24 letter, Cyndi Trauernicht invites us to "Ask the families and friends of those who lost their lives on Sept. 11, what they think about the Iraqi prisoners' treatment." I think that, if asked, most 9-11 families might well ask in return, "What the heck do Iraqi prisoners have to do with Sept. 11?"
Let's review. None of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers was from Iraq. Despite numerous attempts to connect Saddam Hussein with Sept. 11 in the public mind (attempts that were, evidently, all too successful), President Bush was forced to admit that the Iraqi dictator had nothing to do with the appalling attacks of Sept. 11. And the much-vaunted "link" between Hussein and Al Qaeda has never been proved. Indeed, the Detroit Free Press reported in March that "key parts of the Bush administration's case [for such a link] have either proven false or seem increasingly doubtful."
So, defenders of the Iraq invasion are free to support this ill-conceived, costly, and tragic war even though we've found no WMD stockpiles, even though we've proved no operational link between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda, and even though the torture chambers at Abu Ghraib were not as "closed" as the president led us to believe. But please -- just leave Sept. 11 out of it.
Karen Pasley
From the
Columbia Daily Tribune
"Prisoner `abuse' is better than more dead soldiers"
Published Tuesday, May 25, 2004
Editor, the Tribune: Much is being made of the recent Iraqi prisoner abuse. Nothing has been said about why they were in prison in the first place. What did they do to be sent there? What did they do in prison to be singled out by the guards for "abuse?"
Maybe they needed some punishment and the guards wanted to make sure they got it before some slick lawyer like Johnny Cochran got them off. At any rate, from the pictures I've seen, what we have is little more than a combination of Marine Corps boot camp of the 1950s and University of Missouri fraternity hazing of the 1960s. Both have been toned down since then. That's all that needs to be done at the Iraqi prison - tell the warden to tone it down and keep people with cameras out.
Keep in mind that the reason for this "abuse" is to gain information that will bring the fighting to an end so more of your sons will not be killed and maimed. Or would you prefer that the "abuse" is stopped and the aluminum caskets with your dead keep coming?
W.D. Hobbs
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To the editor:
In his May 25 letter, W.D. Hobbs pooh-poohs the disgraceful abuse of Iraqi prisoners, saying, "Nothing has been said about why they were in prison in the first place.... What did they do in prison to be singled out by the guards for 'abuse'?"
Well, I'm glad he asked, because according to a recent Red Cross report, coalition intelligence officers estimated that 70%-90% of Iraqi detainees were arrested by mistake. A former US interrogator told the UK's Guardian, "I've read reports ... where the capturing unit wrote, 'the target was not at home. The neighbor came out to see what was going on and we grabbed him." Worse still, the paper relates, "the victims' very innocence made them more likely to be abused," because interrogators couldn't believe they'd been detained so arbitrarily.
Hobbs says that "from the pictures [he's] seen," the abuse resembles a combination of 1950s boot camp and 1960s MU fraternity hazing, both of which "have been toned down since then." Perhaps he would find the unreleased pictures harder to dismiss. Newsweek reports that one showed "soldiers laughing over dead Iraqis whose bodies had been ... mutilated." If this is the kind of "fraternity hazing" MU administrators "toned down," then my hat's off to them.
Hobbs further argues that the abuse is needed to obtain information that will protect our troops. The more likely result is that former Iraqi fence sitters will be provoked into joining the growing insurgency. That's not going to prevent more troops from coming home in caskets.
Karen Pasley
I keep telling her she ought to start a blog.