A Miltary Father’s Response to Senator Durbin’s Apology

I penned a short essay about the remarks Senator Durbin made on the Senate floor comparing our troops and detention center in Guantanamo Bay to Nazi death camps, Soviet Gulags, and Pol Pot’s “killing fields.” I feel honor-bound to take issue with this non-apology apology on several grounds.

#1) The Senator actually believes that the US is no better than the Nazi’s, Soviet’s or Pol Pot. It doesn’t take a week to decide that you’ve been misinformed and apologize. The Senator KNEW that this was a lie when he spoke it. He could have apologized at any time but chose not to. He chose to put the blame on other people for their “misunderstanding” of his words.

#2) The “apology” was done out of political expediency, nothing else. He believes it, but he could get in a jab at President Bush and get away with a quick non-apology apology when the political pressure became too great. A coerced apology is no apology at all.

#3) His sycophants at www.democraticunderground.com believe it. There are many posts dealing with this subject and most of them run along the lines of, “Why did he apologize for telling the truth?” and “torture-loving America,” and “…the hellhole America's military has created at Guantanamo.” Take particular note of the graphic of Hitler in post 115. They BELIEVE that America is no better than the Nazi’s! Feel the HATE for America!

#4) If you’ll read his apology closely, he never actually apologized for what he said. He apologized if he offended anybody. He’s a Liberal, and like Bill Clinton, one must parse his weasel words very carefully. “I'm sorry if anything that I said caused any offense or pain to those who have such bitter memories of the Holocaust” and “I offer my apology for those offended by my words,” do nothing to apologize for comparing the US prison system to Nazi Death Camps, Soviet Gulags and Pol Pots killing fields.

He isn’t sorry because he made the comparison, he’s sorry that people got offended.

#5) The Senator is still being quoted around the world by the enemies of America and will be for quite some time to come. An accusation gets a banner headline, but an apology is buried on page 32A. It’s EASY to make accusations, but much more difficult to undo those accusations. To paraphrase, “An accusation makes it halfway around the world before the apology gets its boots on.”

#6) I see no retraction of his accusations, calumnies and lies in his non-apology apology. The words stand.

#7) I don’t consider 95 degrees to be torture. Who doesn’t frequently have 95-degree weather. Nor do I consider shivering torture. Who hasn’t ever shivered? It was a lie from the start, he knew it was a lie but he didn’t care.

#8) The other Democrat Senators’ silence on this matter indicates that they’re in full agreement with the Senator on this issue.

No. I don’t accept the Senator’s apology. My daughter has orders to the ME in 30 days. My son in law has orders for his 2nd tour in the ME in 30 days. THEY are the ones who are going to have to cope with the Senator’s lies. Not the senator.

No. I want the Senator to either resign or be censured and expelled from the Senate. An anti-American such as the Senator has no business in the US government.

The real truth about Gitmo is this: From a transcript of radio talk-show host Hugh Hewitt (www.hughhewitt.com) interviewing a young 2nd lieutenant who is two months back from Gitmo: “In fact, my men and I spent nine hours on a runway waiting to try and get a detainee to go back home who had refused to do so because he wanted to stay at Guantanamo because he was being treated so well.”

"The real truth about Gitmo is this:

A message from a chaplain who was assigned at Gitmo (posted by FP'er jbamb earlier on FR):

First-Hand Account of Conditions at Gitmo
===

FROM: Reverend Kent L. Svendsen Ordained Elder United Methodist Church / Northern Illinois Conference

Dear Women's Division General Borad of Global Ministries United Methodist Church

I understand that you about to start a campaign relating to among other things human rights protections and the detainees held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

I can speak with some authority on the subject since I served as the chaplain to the Joint Detention Operation Group in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from May 2004 until March 2005.

As a United Methodist I have a keen sense of world justice and while serving in Cuba sought to be faithful to our social principles and their concern for social holiness.

So I am not speaking to you as a military chaplain but as an Ordained United Methodist.

I have a great concern for our news media sources today. There was a day when the truth and protecting our nation from harm took precedence over being the first to break a story. Now it seems that accusations, no matter how harmful, no matter the source, no matter the possible consequences, are enough to use them as weapons upon the innocent as well as the guilty.

I am also grieved that there seems to be not only an automatic assumption of guilt when the accusations are aimed at our military and our government, but that any explanation aimed at proving them innocent is also automatically viewed as a "cover up". And that when those who are guilty of violations are uncovered, prosecutated, and punished there is a tendency by some to want to use that as evidence that the violations were policy instead a violation of the standing orders and policy. What the new media and groups like the Woman's Division needs to understand is that accusations cause harm and create damage that a retraction and an admission of error later cannot repair. (I don't think we will ever really know exactly how many died after Newsweek made the false accusation of a Koran being flushed down a toilet.)

There are those who would use accusations such as those recently made against our military as weapons to gain political power. They count on the fact that people will believe something if its said enough times and said by people and organizations they respect. It was the case in the past that our nation's opponents tried to prevent our culture and news sources from reaching their people. After all, the ideas of freedom, democracy, and equality for all doesn't play well in some parts of the world. So since modern technology cannot be stopped and "world news" is now also news to the world there is now a new strategy. They use it to their advantage as a weapon against our nation.

The accusations are flying fast and furious. If your organzation would be interested in knowing about my experience. (I cannot talk about the day to day activities in the camp but I can either verify or deny many of the accusations that are being made.)

Here's a list that might help you if your willing to listen to an Ordained Elder who knows the facts rather than accusations made based on speculation. I'll respond here specifically to some of the one's I've heard.

1. The detainees have direct access to the International Red Cross represenatativies contrary to the accusations that they have no outside contact. Also, all the detainees are allowed to write and receive mail from family.

2. The detainees have their food prepared according to Islamic guidelines. The call to prayer is broadcast for them to go to prayer. Each detainee has the direction to Meccah painted in their cell. They are allowed to practice their religion wihtout interference and are given the religious items they need to do so. They are allowed to observe Ramadan.

3. There are strict guidelines and training concerning human rights protections. If a service member sees a violation they are to report it and if asked to violate someone's human rights they are to consider it as an unlawful order. Those who violate are subject to prosecution.

If you are interested in more information please contact me. There is also an article about my work in Cuba which was published in the July issue of Esquire magazine.

Kent Svendsen Chaplain (Major) USAR

Here is a May 27, 2005 article about this Chaplin which may be of interest:
Phone cards lift morale, spirit of soldiers

The 'Rats' are the party of 'Blame America First', Gay Marriage (gay adoption..especially of little boys!), Abortion (it must bring joy to their hearts to watch when the little baby's kicking legs slowly stop after they punch a hole in the baby's head and suck the brains out), Higher Taxes (What? You don't want to work harder to pay for bums who just want to sit on their ass's and collect welfare (but vote for Rats), Gun Control (you don't need a pistol...are you planning to rob a bank?), Tree Huggers, Animal Rights Activists (hunting is for the cruel and uneducated - turn in your rifles!).

And now Dick Durban slipped up, he dropped the mask, and said what he and his fellow Rats really believe..America's servicemen are Nazi's.

Please keep it up Dick..your message is getting throuth to the American people.

They will reject you and your party!

Thank you!

Durbin made no "full" apology! If I tell you that I'm sorry that you were offended by my accusation, I'm apologizing for nothing!! Durbin's remarks display either a gross lack of knowledge of history, or a deliberate partisan effort to smear America's Commander-in-Chief, or, at the very least a gross lack of understanding of how America's enemies use and misuse remarks such as his in their war on America and its liberty. A full apology would have included an admission to either ignorance or an overly-ambitious partisan spirit on his own part.

This is a war of ideas--the ideas of liberty vs. the ideas of oppression and tyranny--,and to hand the enemies of liberty a weapon for headlines in the Middle East, either deliberately or through ignorance, must not be tolerated on the floor of our Congress. He can't put the toothpaste back in the tube. It's there for all time for the enemies to use!!

No apology here, and no "misunderstanding" either!

What Durbin and all the other Democratic Partisans are doing during this critical time of war against extremist terrorists is consistent with President George Washington's Farewell admonition regarding what he identified as the danger of the "spirit of Party."

Thi

". . .the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it."

>b? "It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions." Historically knowledgeable "wise people" have complained about Durbin's partisan-motivated public statements, which are either uninformed or deliberately intended to damage his country's President's effort to contain and wage a dangerous war against tyranny.

And, he claims they "misunderstood" him, or now that they were merely "offended"????

If the accusatory and inflammatory remarks of Dean, Durbin, Kennedy, Biden, and other partisans are allowed to stand, unchallenged by a "wise people," then we must conclude that the decades-long failure to teach and learn the Founders' principles, and the means by which they can be subverted, has succeeded!

Sorry! Let's get the Washington statement right this time. My post of Washington's statements should have read:

This is a small excerpt from that dire warning:

". . .the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it."

"It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions."

The rest is as intended.

"Congressmen who willfully take actions during wartime that damage morale and undermine the military are saboteurs and should be arrested, exiled, or hanged." ---- Abraham Lincoln

Durbinladen's actions on the Senate floor were an act of sabotage against our military.

Apology NOT ACCEPTED Saboteur

Stop Dick Turbinladen Durbin before he aids our enemy again! DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS!!!!Contact your REPS

Tell them to prosecute this saboteur!!

Link to contact your senator

Link to contact your representative

ABC CBS NBC CNN its all the SAME, Propaganda. Might as well call them all AmeriJazerra. Show them how much Gravitas Hugh Bris has. Vote with your remote! Shut down the Alphabet channels.

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