There have been many important posts to this blog, some that detail the MANY reason why we invaded Iraq and why it was the only right and just choice we had. Some that detail how the left in this country have torn this country apart piece by piece.
But Don Surber wrote a post this evening that put all of them to shame (ok, ok, a bit dramatic there. Maybe not to shame…but it holds up well against them).
And wonders of wonders, the hero of the story is a Democrat:
“Europe was not as outraged by Auschwitz as by Guantanamo Bay”
He’ll probably apologize for the remark later but Democratic Congressman Tom Lantos of California, the only Holocaust survivor in Congress, told it like it is to some Dutch politicians: “Europe was not as outraged by Auschwitz as by Guantanamo Bay.”
The liberal Lantos is far from a friend of Gitmo. The Dutch sent these politicians here to bitch about Gitmo. No reporter attended a meeting between the Dutch and the congressman, but AP wrote a story based on Green Party legislator Mariko Peters.
The Dutch are threatening to remove their 1,600 troops from Afghanistan to protest Gitmo. Dutch politicians face growing problems with Islamic youths and likely fear a L’Intifada like France suffered in 2005.
Peters said: “We have to close Guantanamo because it symbolizes for me everything that is wrong with this war on terror.”
To which Lantos apparently replied: “Europe was not as outraged by Auschwitz as by Guantanamo Bay”
He also said: “You have to help us, because if it was not for us you would now be a province of Nazi Germany.”
Good for him.
The Socialist Harry van Bommel said: “The comments killed the debate. It was insulting and counterproductive.”
Excuse me, there is no debate. There never was.
America is not European. Americans by and large do not care what the Dutch think or the French or the Germans or the Belgians. We’ll listen to them, but if they are going to go tell us we “have to” do this or we “have to” do that, they can put a sock in it.
There are not many Democrats I agree with these days. Democrats from John F. Kennedy’s era I may have had a bit more in common with, but today’s Socialists….excuse me, Democrats, are no JFK Democrats, and I agree with them almost never. But with Tom Lantos, on this subject and on this story, I stand with him proudly.
Gitmo house a few dozen of the worse of the worse in this war. Many of the scum housed there don’t even want to go home because they know what awaits them. Meanwhile they are given three squares and a exercise yard.
Sixty five years ago the Dutch didn’t utter a peep about those smoke stacks rising through the air. They didn’t want to make waves you see. But now that radical Islam has found their land…..suddenly, they want to show some courage and stand up for human rights.
But instead of standing up for the rights of the innocent sixty five years ago, they now want to stand up for the rights of those who want to kill innocent men, women and children….the irony is thick. .
No moral courage sixty five years ago, and even less in 2007.
So, without further ado….Curt from Flopping Aces gives thanks to a Democrat.
Thank you Democratic Congressman Tom Lantos of California.
See author page
I acknowledge that Representative Tom Lantos was rightm one democrat right on one issue. Just a stopped watch.
Peters said: “We have to close Guantanamo because it symbolizes for me everything that is wrong with this war on terror.â€Â
So administration have to close Gitmo because it symbolizes something unpleasant FOR HIM?
So Europe took 65 years to forget the Nazi’s and the democrats took 3 days to forget 9-11-01. There is a great difference in brain power or memory retention? In truth the democrats and most people in Europe make all of their decisions based on a wounded ego (guilt,we could have taken care of it in the 90’s) or BDS (he picked up the ball we dropped). I’m not sure they dropped the ball, they threw it down because they were too cowardly to fight.
….But now that radical Islam has found their land…..suddenly, they want to show some courage and stand up for human rights.
I find it exceedingly hypocritical of the Dutch to speak for human rights, when their own Crown Princess Maxima – nee- Zorreguieta – has ties to an oppresive dictatorship.
Maxima’s father, Jorge Horacio Zorreguieta, is the former Minister of Agriculture in Gen. Videla regime in the 1970s, one of the most brutal dictatorships in Latin America.
Oh, yes, the Dutch Government did not utter a peep over the atrocities being reported by Videla’s government. Not in the 70’s and not in 2001 when the Crown Prince announced his engagement to Maxima.
Still, as I said at my place, the guy shouldn’t be thiking of an ambassadorial slot any lifetime soon.
One of the Dutch noted:
To which I responded:
Personally, I find the obvious internal fight that was going on inside the man fascinating…. but I can’t help but think that were GWB a Democrat, Lantos would ahve been more forceful yet.
President Bush has repeatedly invited representatives of European human rights organizations to visit Gitmo and see the humane treatment for themselves. Few of them have accepted the invite. And there was a story a few years back where a European Human Rights Commission found conditions in the main Paris jail to be absolutely worse.
And just for comparison, I’ve been to Dachau, the first German Concentration Camp. Here’s a photo:
http://photos1.blogger.com/img/249/2318/640/Dachau%20Ovens.jpg
They weren’t backing bread in those ovens. How many inmates at Gitmo have died? Most of them gain weight.
P.S. I’m still waiting for Lantos to tell us how many of the Code Pink circus freaks he is going to prosecute for disrupting his congressional hearings.
Don’t expect it anytime soon Mike. Tom Lantos had one moment of clarity out of a whole lifetime of confusion.