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Iraq The Honorable John Culberson Old Executive Term Paper

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Iraq The Honorable John Culberson

Old Executive Office Building

Washington, D.C.

Sir:

It seems there is very little we have done in Iraq that is in any way honorable. It is common knowledge, now, that there were no Weapons of Mass Destruction, and therefore precious little excuse for the war. However, it is true, also beyond question, that Saddam Hussein was a vicious and brutal dictator who kept his nation in line by virtue of excesses of every sort. One of his sons is reputed to have shredded foes in paper shredders. So perhaps the global community is better off rid of him.

None of that excuses the actions of the United States, both its top administration and its military. After exposure of their activities at Abu Ghraib Prison, and in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, their activities are very little better than the unconscionable activities of the Hussein family. Perhaps it is lost on some that Guantanamo Bay is a supposedly civilized outpost of the United States in dictator Fidel Castro's backyard. It is not lost on me. I cannot help but think that the world's longest ruling dictator must be laughing behind his mahogany palace doors at the foolishness of the United States, self-proclaimed protector of freedom, which is riding roughshod over the freedoms the United States supposedly represents.

Antonella Notari, a spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, told Madeleine Brand, in a broadcast May 11, 2004, on National Public Radio, that the Red Cross had "confirmed that we have observed a pattern and a system in place against this particular group in particular of prisoners with high intelligence value, and that we had seen it in a series of places of detention."
A week earlier, Notari had been extensively quoted in an Associated Press Report on the abuse at Abu Ghraib. The report's author, Alexander Higgins, wrote on May 4, 2004, "the United States is legally required to thoroughly investigate and prosecute anyone found to have been abusing prisoners in Iraq." In this case, that would be U.S. officers, who either condoned or at least tolerated the behavior in question, if not actually ordering it. Notari, quoted by Higgins in his report, said, that if the reports, after investigation, were true, "the must be prosecuted by applicable laws and procedures…

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If we are ever to see the abuses carried out by our military stopped and amends made, if we are ever to regain our reputation as a moral nation with high ideals, one of which is the humane and ethical treatment of all people (repeat ALL PEOPLE), then we must not confirm another Attorney General who is committed to destroying the foundation of American ideals, the U.S. Constitution, nor who ignores the demands of international law among nations of good will.

A November 11, 2004, report in The Washington Post by Dan Eggen noted the ways Gonzales, currently White House counsel, disregards and disrespects the American Way as it was once known, and the Geneva Conventions' requirements as recognized by all civilized nations. Eggen quoted Gonzales' January 2002 memo in which he "argued that the war on terrorism made the Geneva Conventions' limitations on treatment of enemy prisoners 'obsolete' and 'renders quaint some of its provisions'." He also noted that Gonzales' office "played a role in an August 2002 memo from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel" that rendered the opinion "that torturing alleged al Qaeda terrorists in captivity abroad 'may be justified' and that international laws against torture 'may be unconstitutional if applied to interrogations' conducted in the U.S. war on terrorism."

In view of the abuse already conducted by U.S. forces, both in Iraq and at Guantanamo, we cannot afford to have as our chief law enforcement official a man who twists international law
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