By John Burtis
Sunday, September 17, 2006
anybody that thinks the treatment afforded POW's by the Nazis or the Taliban, the North Koreans, Iranians, Syrians or any other totalitarian regime depends on a treaty is seriously deluded. The survival of anyone in such captivity is strictly by chance.
The Boston Globe offers us an article, "Rebelling against torture and Bush," by Robert Kuttner where the author explains that his father survived the horrors of Nazi captivity as an american Jew because of the life saving intervention of "reciprocal agreements on the humane treatment of prisoners."
Whoa, what an astonishing statement, in light of the millions of POW's systematically murdered, who were used for "scientific" experiments in the concentration camp system, who were herded together in the open and allowed to die of exposure, to name just a few of the inhuman ways the Nazis treated POW's, particularly on the Eastern Front, where not one bit of attention was paid to any treaty whatsoever and the very idea is laughable.
In addition, there are enough examples of the outright murder of allied POW's to tear Mr. Kuttner's trite and simplistic argument to pieces.
On May 26, 1940, 97 POW's from the Royal Norfolk Regiment were murdered by the Nazis at Le Paradis in France.
On May27/28, 1940, 85 POW's from the 2nd Royal Warwickshire Regiment were murdered in Esquelbecq, near Wormhoudt, France.
On October 4, 1943, 102 Italian officers were murdered by the Nazis on the Greek Island of Kos.
In September of 1943, 4,750 Italian officers and enlisted men were killed by the Nazis on the Greek Island of Cephalonia.
and on December 17, 1994, 84 american POW's were murdered by the Nazis at Malmedy, Belgium.
as can be seen, the Nazis did not always honor the "reciprocal agreements" so assiduously mentioned by Mr. Kuttner. In fact, survival at all in the Nazi system, from concentration caps to the oft venerated Luft Stalags - whose depiction in Hogan's heroes seems to still sway authors today - was strictly a matter of chance, and had nothing at all to do with any sort of an agreement, reciprocal or otherwise. Hitler, one may recall, used to guffaw at treaties and agreements, before tearing them up.
Further, Mr. Kuttner's description of captured German officers being living the high life in posh Washington D.C. area hotels, where they weren't tortured, is viewed as some sort of quid pro quo with the honorable treatment accorded POWs under Nazi control is sheer outright fantasy. Just ask the fallen at Malmedy or at Les Paradis.
While I can certainly value Mr. Kuttner's emotions concerning the survival of his father, my father, who served in the US Navy in both theaters of operations, had a decidedly different view of the whole affair.
"John," he told me in 1995, on the 50th anniversary of Hiroshima, "The a-bomb saved my life and the lives of my crew."
He recognized more clearly than any tarted up hand wringing politician, dangerously myopic Supreme Court justice wandering a supine blue america today, or a groveling Globe author currying favor with the left by trumpeting the treatment afforded by the Nazis and their adherence to pieces of paper, what the real stakes are when battling a foe who welcomes death in the pursuit of endless killing.
and following a series of briefings on Saipan, the old man also knew that there would be no prisoners taken by the Japanese, while we were expecting at least a half million casualties.
Can you imagine any liberal President today preparing for a half a million casualties in a single campaign today, even if it meant our survival as a nation?
Not while war lords of the stripe and character of John McCain, John Kerry, Chris Dodd, al Gore, and Hillary Clinton do battle over the spoils system, fight over absolute power, and wrangle over the legal ramifications governing war, rather than rolling up their sleeves for the street brawl with Islamist fascism going on outside their double hung storm windows.
No, today, rather than fight to the point of sheer exhaustion as the Marines did in the mud and squalor of Guadalcanal in those dark days, when their survival hung in the balance, though their valor and spirit never wavered, our dandified, prancing and preening politicians will take us all to our unmarked graves with their deep thoughts over treaties, Geneva Conventions, article 3's, and tender mercies for an enemy who will still torture and murder captives at will, just as the Nazis did, regardless of however many pieces of paper we wave from how many freshly waxed air Force Ones.
Through the other end of the lens, we are the antiquated toffs and poofters, who are far too dainty and rotten to the core to die for anything - let alone fight.
The words of a German officer who fought the French in 1940, Fritz Langanke, perfectly sums up the liberal view regarding the defense of america today.
"On the whole you got the feeling they were not convinced of their cause. They did their duty. But only up to a certain point. and then, when it was possible not to lose face, they gave up."
Lord help us in the coming battle, if we think treaties and agreements will force our enemies to treat our POWs like we treated those German officers, who wandered the posh hallways of plush hotels while our POWs were machine-gunned in the blood-red snow.
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