The Anchoress

You know, I hate to sound curmudgeonly, I really do, but didn’t we just see a report, not two weeks ago, pretty much clearing the air re the “Gitmo abuses?” Didn’t some Democrat lawmakers go over there, themselves, and come back saying,”hey…things looked pretty dang good, after all?”

And yet, here are the Dems calling for an independent panel “to review the treatment of foreign inmates at Guantanamo Bay and other US-run overseas detention facilities.”

“We are calling for an ‘Independent Commission on the Treatment of Detainees,’ because the Defense Department has shown that it is not capable of investigating itself,” said Democratic Senator Carl Levin, who authored the bill, along Democrats Ted Kennedy, John Rockefeller and Jack Reed.

The usual suspects. Out to find the American bad guys by any means necessary. They offer investigations and committees and studies, but they never offer an idea.

Look, I am all for making sure that America and her representatives do the right thing as concerns her enemy combatants. It is, quite frankly, a patriot’s concern. On that, I agree with Lord de l’Isle and Dudley.

Who was Lord de l’Isle and Dudley? I don’t know. Even the brilliant Leo Rosten did not know much about him, but he knew this, which I copy from his superlative and sadly out-of-print book, People I Have Loved, Known or Admired:

In England, after the war, (Lord de l’Isle and Dudley) organized a legal defense fund for German Field Marshal Erich von Manstein, who was being tried as a war criminal. (…)

He wanted England never to have anything to be ashamed of.

But notice, Lord de l’Isle and Dudley understood that war is different from peacetime. In a time of peace, one has the luxury - and the duty - to take extraordinary care, be extraordinarily mindful.

In war, one has the duty to properly identify the enemy and work for the victory of one’s nation, even if it means playing loud music, reading Harry Potter, putting a bra on an enemy’s head or - dare I say it -not wearing white gloves to handle a book.

This is a time of war; information must be gathered. It won’t be gotten with tea parties and footrubs.

These Democrats, the sad remains of the once-great party of Truman, Kennedy, Humphrey and Jackson, are on the right train, but the wrong track. In a time of war, to investigate and vilify your troops - on the word of your enemies, and particularly when the investigation seems to be a quest to “know what we want, when we find it,” is a misplaced compassion with a dubious interest at its core.

Lord de l’Isle and Dudley did what he did to spare his country embarrassment. While I would like to believe that these men are similarly motivated, nothing in their behavior of the last 4.5 years argues the case. Too often the rhetoric they spew appears designed to inflame and energize those whom we fight. Too often the memos they write appear to be about defeating a president, instead of defeating our enemies.

These Democrats seem to understand they are at war - they simply have misidentified the enemy.

UPDATE: Betsy Newmark, excellent History teacher that she is, has a similar story about John Adams and the Boston Massacre - but she also has more - a peek at the salivating glee from some members of the left that more Abu Ghraib photos and tapes are soon to be released, items which one leftists wrote,will “…be sure to inflame the sentiments against the U.S., and rightfully so.”

Not exactly what John Adams or Milord had in mind, I think. This is not about saving America’s reputation, but about hating America and wanting to see her defeated. Betsy writes:

Can you hear the glee about inflaming sentiments against the U.S. and how justified UAtW thinks it is. What a truly despicable wish for our country. And how deluded they all are to believe that the abuses at Abu Ghraib were standard operating procedure for our military.

Hasn’t the point been made over and over and over again about Abu Ghraib? Why continue to inflame opinion when those responsible have been tried and punished? Aren’t those who are all excited about these pictures just reveling in making the United States and, by extension, Bush look bad?

Why yes, Ms. Newmark, I do believe they are. And, as usual, it does not matter to any of these people that the perps at AG were already under investigation (or in some cases arrest) by the Army before the AG story ever broke. Why let that detail get in the way of a good, destructive narrative, eh?