Kristallnacht Redux

A German soldier is having fun cutting the beard
of an elderly Jew in Poland

Ranger is ashamed of his Army, his country, and this Phony War on Terror (PWOT ©). Shame is the operative word.

We are told about efforts to "bend [Iraqis] back to our will." That is operating from a fallacious premise, and it is too reminiscent of oppressive regimes throughout history. "Convert, and we spare you."

Am I supposed to feel warm and fuzzy about "reshaping Iraqi detainees"? Obviously, this is not about putting weight rooms into the prisons. When did the U.S. Army get into the business of religious indoctrination or "deprogramming"? In effect, "brainwashing" is now official policy. Shame.

The lead-in from the WaPo coverage:

"The U.S. military has introduced 'religious enlightenment' and other education programs for Iraqi detainees, some of whom are as young as 11, Marine Maj. Gen. Douglas M. Stone, the commander of U.S. detention facilities in Iraq, said yesterday.

"Stone said such efforts, aimed mainly at Iraqis who have been held for more than a year, are intended to 'bend them back to our will' and are part of waging war in what he called 'the battlefield of the mind.' Most of the younger detainees are held in a facility that the military calls the 'House of Wisdom.'

"As a result of the increased U.S. troop presence in Iraq this year, the number of Iraqis in U.S. detention has swelled from about 10,000 last year to more than 25,000. The effort to reshape attitudes among the growing detainee population is aimed at addressing a problem that has vexed U.S. troops in Iraq for the past four years: Military detention facilities have served as breeding grounds for extremist views, transforming some prisoners into hard-core insurgents, according to military analysts (U.S. Working to Reshape Iraqi Detainees)."

Are these the same analysts that got us into this phony war? Probably not, since the original screw-ups have probably been promoted. Time to give the young analysts an opportunity to mature. What a wonderful cycle.

"Stone said he wants to identify 'irreconcilables' -- those detainees whose views cannot be moderated -- and 'put them away' in permanent detention facilities. Psychiatrists, psychologists, counselors and interrogators help distinguish the extremists from others, he said."

Democracy in action. And what law allows U.S. forces to put foreign citizens into permanent detention?

Another tack is vocational training and basic education for about 7,000 of the held Iraqis, at U.S. taxpayer expense. Meanwhile, back on the range, countless U.S. students have to struggle to make ends meet while attending vo-techs and community colleges and universities.

Maybe unemployed U.S. citizens should go to Iraq to get job training. Then again, Ranger reckons this is already the case. We call it the U.S military. Like the USMC slogan says: "The Few, The Proud, The Unemployed."

Maj. Stone says the Iraqi Vice President told him America could win the war if they applied his techniques to the rest of the country. Does this mean we will win IF we put the entire Iraqi nation under detention? Possibly this needs to be explored with prison contractors.

But here is the part that paralyzes the mind:

"Stone described a sort of religious insurgency that occurred at one detention facility on Sept. 2. 'We had a compound of moderates for the first time overtake . . . extremists. It's never happened before. Found them, identified them, threw them up against the fence and shaved their frickin' beards off of them. . . . I mean, that is historic.'"

Historic. . .really, Maj. Stone? The Nazis did the same thing to their orthodox Jewish population on Kristallnacht and thereafter, with as much relish and disgust as Maj. Stone summons for his Iraqi charges. Keep in mind, Maj. Stone is a man in his late 50's, early 60's; not a young punk.

Ranger is glad that his father fought the Nazis. It has made all the difference. Now, democracy rules.

Unless you are wearing a religious beard, and are on the wrong team.