What Makes Them Different

Like so much of the news coming out of this war in Iraq, the knee-jerk responses I was exposed to in the wake of the capture and subsequent mutilation of two of our boys at the hands of the enemy were mostly extreme and off the mark.

The Left’s insistence that it’s the latest evidence of a situation gone mad, an entrenched mess that we should abort as soon as possible, is only slightly more delusional than those on the right who lack the ability to admit that this cuts deeper.

Yes, my friends on the right-
People do die in war and we have to toughen up… yada, yada, yada. But death on the battlefield and desecration are different things. I don’t look forward to finding out exactly what was done to Privates Thomas Lowell Tucker and Kristian Menchaca. The early reports from the military were so deliberately vague, such a fumbling for truthful yet respectful words that the picture of a sadistic blood-bath is the only image that conjures with resonance.

I know we have the best army stocked with the best trained soldiers in the history of the planet. But I don’t believe there is any training that can prepare a man for the mental shock of any sort of prolonged torture. This wasn’t torture for a purpose- to elicit pertinent information then throw the prisoner back into the gulag until future information is needed. This was torture for sport. The outcome certain, only the nature and number of horrific minutes to be endured was left in question.

In the hands of madmen half a world away they were forced to pay for sins attributed to us. They were our kids martyred in our name.

And to my friends on the Left-
We must respond with strength in order to bring these psychopathic monsters to justice. This insurgency is not a legitimate resistance to our current guardianship of the Iraqi territory.

These are hucksters, charismatic leaders and brainwashed zealots that will never tire of killing us. They have no interest in coexistence. They have a mission, cynical at the top, feverish in the ranks, to wipe the earth of the Infidels. And you and your loved ones are all Infidels. Everyone you know is an Infidel. It doesn’t matter who you voted for in 2004, or how many anti-war rallies you’ve attended. You’re an Infidel until you acquiesce to the desires of their version of pop stars, the mindless clerics that bring blood, anger, and ruin to everything they touch.

Why is it so easy for liberals to identify the inherent dangers of religious fundamentalism here at home, but utterly fail to recognize the true menace posed by it’s out of control cousin in the Middle East?

Thomas Lowell Tucker and Kristian Menchaca are the closest thing to martyrs this country will ever have. To them is owed a special place in our hearts and minds. They were humiliated and desecrated for being just like us- And we are duty-bound to resolution through victory if we are to be honored enough to be seen as just like them.