Sen. Dick Durbin Issues Apology


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[WASHINGTON, DC] - U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) today made the following statement on the floor of the United States Senate:

"More than most people, a Senator lives by his words, words are the coin of the realm in our profession. Occasionally words will fail us and occasionally we will fail words."

Full statement by Sen. Durbin (Chicago Tribune)

I'm suprised that I haven't seen this topic show up yet in RWI, so I'm introducing it. I'm sure a variety of opinions exist, including whether or not Sen. Durbin's statements concerning the Gitmo detainees was warranted.

Should Sen. Durbin have been censured? Or was no apology/statement/explanation on his part required?

*Waits for the can of worms to open* ;)

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Not being American, I guess my opinion doesn't amount to a whole lot, but IF the allegations of abuse at Guantanamo Bay are true, then he's not TOO far off the mark with drawing parallels with historic regimes.

Still, mentioning the Nazi's was a big booboo. You can bet he's making this apology cause he found out just how many influential jewish people their are in his state!

Abuses or not aside, the US government HAS imprisoned people only SUSPECTED of being terrorists without trial, which is illegal, even by your OWN laws. Either accuse them of a specific crime, try, convict and imprison them, or release them. Continuing to hold them with little or no proof, and with NO trial, makes you little better than Saddams regime, which did similar things.

(Sorry for the slight OT at the end there...)

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Not being American, I guess my opinion doesn't amount to a whole lot, but IF the allegations of abuse at Guantanamo Bay are true, then he's not TOO far off the mark with drawing parallels with historic regimes.

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Even if every allegation is true it is still way off until we kill a few million detainees. To this day I believe not one person has died at Gitmo.

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He didn't apologize for what he said, he apologized if anyone was offended, but not what he said because he honestly believes the garbage that comes out of his mouth.

WE ARE NOT KILLING PRISIONERS!!! You cannot compare Nazis, Soviet gulags and Cambodia's Pol Pot to G'itmo! We do more to make these terrorist, the ones that killed 3000 of us, comfortable then what we did for Terri Schiavo :pinch:

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he's allowed to say whatever he wants, and he shouldn't be attacked for this. he should only be criticized on the basis of his error: misunderstanding or misusing history.

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He didn't apologize for what he said, he apologized if anyone was offended, but not what he said because he honestly believes the garbage that comes out of his mouth.

WE ARE NOT KILLING PRISIONERS!!! You cannot compare Nazis, Soviet gulags and Cambodia's Pol Pot to G'itmo! We do more to make these terrorist, the ones that killed 3000 of us, comfortable then what we did for Terri Schiavo :pinch:

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it doesn't matter if you're killing them or not, they're illegally detained us citizens. they've not been charged with anything and some have been in there for years. that's very illegal, violates us law, international treaty's and un laws.

I don't even know why the us is in the un, they don't listen to them or approve anything they do beforehand.

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he's allowed to say whatever he wants, and he shouldn't be attacked for this.  he should only be criticized on the basis of his error: misunderstanding or misusing history.

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He's allowed to say whatever he wants? So if I say I'm going to murder the president, it is ok... well, now we know why you don't work for the CIA or the FBI :rolleyes:

Remember Trent Lott, he didn't say anything no where near as bad as what Durbin did, but he was de-throwned and he apologized 5 times.

it doesn't matter if you're killing them or not, they're illegally detained us citizens.

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How are they US Citizens if they were captured in Iraq?

I don't even know why the us is in the un, they don't listen to them or approve anything they do beforehand.

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Good point, the UN sucks :crazy:

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How are they US Citizens if they were captured in Iraq?

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ummm, guantanamo bay is used for anyone they want to put there, us citizens, war criminals, illegal immigrants, etc. there are a number of us citizens there, accused of links to terrorist organizations.

and the un is more powerfull than the us, **** off the un and you've got a world war on your hands.

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He's allowed to say whatever he wants? So if I say I'm going to murder the president, it is ok... well, now we know why you don't work for the CIA or the FBI :rolleyes:

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it's called freedom of speech. but of course, one is always responsible for what one says, as we see here. he is wrong, not because he spoke, but because he spoke incorrectly.

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...and the un is more powerfull than the us, **** off the un and you've got a world war on your hands.

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Apologies ahead of time for the offtopic comment, but I may take issue with that comment since a major, major source of funding for the UN is the US. If it ceased the funding (remember where UN headquarters are?) the UN would not cease to function, but it would be slightly crippled financially unless some other nation steps up to take over the losses.

Furthermore, if you've ever seen what it takes to get a unanimous concensus in the UN, I highly doubt that they would jump at the prospect of a world war, just because the United States annoyed them. Remember, the US has proved a big source of annoyance to the UN in the past, but how much noise are you really going to make if one of your largest sources of funds is the only holdout on a treaty, etc, etc?

Not much. :)

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Good point, the UN sucks?:crazy::

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what on earth are u talking about? how does the UN suck? what is your reasoning? is it that they saw through the lies presented by the us about going to iraq? what is so wrong with the UN, i dont understand comments like that, the un brings peace and order to situations, how is that bad unless you llike sensless death:rolleyes::

i think what durbin meant was that the type of treatment being authorized is inhumane and illegal, stuff that was being authorized by those regimes, something that the US does not do, but is more expected from nazis or soviets. What i dont get is why people again have to bring 9/11 into this. if anybody gave a crap about what happened on 9/11, we wouldnt be in iraq, so please leave that out of it.

hurmoth, no they arent us citizens if they came from iraq, but they are prisoners of war, and there is a tihng we signed called the geneva convention that prohibited the treatment currently displayed at america's gulag. doesnt matter where they are from, its still wrong.

durbin may have gone to the extreme in his statement, but i understand what he meant and unfortunatly i am forced to agree.

Edited by MonkeyClaw
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Thought these are appropriate reads.

One Way to Gitmo

by Dustin Hawkins

You know things aren?t going well for the Democrats when their main fighting issue is what the room temperature is at Guantanamo Bay?s Motel 6. Among the brilliant ideas of the ?We Support the Troops? party is to close down the island-resort prison center affectionately referred to as Gitmo. The people most upset about the ?torture? are mainly a bunch of leftwing, bed-wetting socialists who have never supported the war in any form or at any stage, but who we are now supposed to take as objective, credible persons.

Senator Dick Durbin (D-Idiot) breathlessly announced the extent of the torture found at Gitmo, which included 1) a room that was too cold, causing a detainee to shake; 2) a room that was too hot, causing a detainee to sweat; and 3) a room that was filled with loud rap music. Anyone learning of this information would undoubtedly, according to Durbin, compare this to the slaughter of several million non-terrorist Jews in Hitler?s death camps, around three million persons murdered in Stalin?s gulags, and a few million more massacred by Pol Pot?s rampage in Cambodia.

Not only is such a comparison stupid but also it is irresponsible. If it is true that such situations create terrorists, as Durbin suggests, then it probably doesn?t help to exaggerate a point beyond believability. Al-Jazeera was originally going to use a headline that read ?Infidels torture prisoner with bad music and Florida-like weather,? but now they can use more entertaining headlines like ?U.S. Senator likens torture of Muslims to Holocaust, millions of Muslims likely incinerated by giant oven.? Hey, Durbin, thanks! You make us proud.

But the idea that liberals have of normal Arabs sitting around just waiting for that breaking point as to where they decide to check into a terrorist training camp and blow themselves to pieces because they are super-angry is rather absurd. Normal Arabs don?t do that; the crazy ones do. And the crazy ones are already terrorists.

But that is beside the point. Americans are bad. Bad, bad, bad! Among the other things we do to American-hating terrorists and 9/11 co-conspirators is: feed them seven-course, culturally-aware meals, allow them to pray six thousand times a day, and give them prayer beads and prayer oil. (As opposed to mass starvation, denial of religious services, or random removal of bodies from heads.)

Inasmuch as hundreds of thousands of people risk their lives just to sneak into our country, which they sometimes call the Great Satan, it is rather obvious that our atrocities aren?t quite atrocious enough. If we are going to be accused of doing really, really mean things to ruthless savages we might as well do them already. No offense, but putting on puppet shows and playing Christina Aguilera CD?s (our other documented forms of ?mistreatment?) sounds less like the activities of hardened torture facility and more like those of Neverland Ranch.

My personal choice would be the Saddam Treatment, a unique brand of torture developed and tested by the former dictator himself, which would be equally suitable (and oh, how ironic!) for testing on his Gitmo-detained former subordinates. If Arafat was the Father of Modern Terrorism then Saddam is the Father of Modern Torture. In his pre-dictator days, Saddam worked at perfecting torture techniques. Such innovative torture ideas included eye-gouging, the drilling of holes in a person?s hands and pouring acid on the open wounds, raping women with broken glass bottles, tying victims up and slowly lowering them into pools of acid, cutting off ears and tongues, ripping out finger and toenails, and among many other things, giving heavy electric shocks to the body and genitals. But hey, at least he didn?t make them watch re-runs of the Golden Girls.

I?m sure that Congress will continue to argue for closing down the prison for absurd reasons, most likely with a brave bipartisan effort including liberal Republican Arlen Specter and liberal drunk Ted Kennedy. But if we must close Gitmo down, can we at leasWhat Could Be Worse Than Gitmo?'>What Could Be Worse Than Gitmo?

By George H. Wittman

For those of us -- and there are millions -- who have gone through U.S. Arthe complaints of Senator Richard Durbin regarding the treatment of the prisoners at Camp Delta in Guantanamo are laughable. Camp Delta in Guantanamo are laughable.

One wonders what Durbin and the folks at Amnesty International would say if their little darlings had been forced to stand at attention in 100-degree heat for two or more hours at Fort Jackson or Camp Lejeune in full combat gear, with 60 pounds of ammo and equipment, waiting for a general inspection. "What time did you get up, soldier?" the inspecting officer invariably asks the first trooper in line. The answer is always the same. "Reveille, sir." As long as you said that, you didn't have to admit you and your buddies had been up for 36 hours straight "G I-ing" the barracks, the company street, your weapons and everything that moved or stood in the area.

"Drop down and give me 20, 30, 50," the training cadre would demand, and the shaved head recruit falls to the ground and completes his push-ups -- sometimes to the point of exhaustion for those not in top condition. The heel of the corporal on your back tends to make the task a bit more difficult. Gosh, we should have had some of those ACLU lawyers.

Another fine element of training occurs when a drill sergeant's mouth is so close to yours his shouts spit saliva till it runs down your face. One flinch brings an order for 30 perfect push-ups or an evening of jogging around the company area with a rifle held with both hands above one's head while the miscreant shouts the General Orders.

Definitely too tough for those unfortunate terrorists.

Senator Durbin, whose biography shows he spent the Vietnam War in law school, knows nothing of an American soldier's training life -- and we are talking about only those first eight weeks of basic training, not the far tougher regimen for Ranger, SEAL, Recon or Special Forces.

He says he's appalled the Gitmo terrorists had to sit or stand in stress positions while under interrogation. What about crawling into and cleaning out an eight-foot deep grease pit attached to each mess hall. That's a nice little punishment for arriving late to formation. Or what about a 25-mile march with a full field pack, your weapon and ammo, and only one canteen of water?

Senator Durbin is deeply worried about the impression that is caused internationally when a terrorist prisoner complains his "space" has been invaded by a female interrogator. Oh, dear me, did that female make the poor prisoner feel badly? An American soldier yearns for such "intimidation." A recruit has no "space." He or she is government property.

From what type of mental illness does Senator Durbin suffer? What country has Durbin been inhabiting? From what planet does this civilian feather merchant come? Senator, don't insult the hundreds of thousands of on-duty servicemen and women and the millions of veterans by your politically inspired pettifogging complaints.

Perhaps Senator Durbin doesn't understand what it takes to be an American soldier or Marine. Perhaps he thinks the families of the terrorists should be thought of before the families of the victims of 9/11 or those of our fallen warriors. He speaks of Guantanamo as an embarrassment. It is he who embarrasses those who have served.

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Thought these are appropriate reads.

One Way to Gitmo

by Dustin Hawkins

You know things aren?t going well for the Democrats when their main fighting issue is what the room temperature is at Guantanamo Bay?s Motel 6. Among the brilliant ideas of the ?We Support the Troops? party is to close down the island-resort prison center affectionately referred to as Gitmo. The people most upset about the ?torture? are mainly a bunch of leftwing, bed-wetting socialists who have never supported the war in any form or at any stage, but who we are now supposed to take as objective, credible persons.

Senator Dick Durbin (D-Idiot) breathlessly announced the extent of the torture found at Gitmo, which included 1) a room that was too cold, causing a detainee to shake; 2) a room that was too hot, causing a detainee to sweat; and 3) a room that was filled with loud rap music. Anyone learning of this information would undoubtedly, according to Durbin, compare this to the slaughter of several million non-terrorist Jews in Hitler?s death camps, around three million persons murdered in Stalin?s gulags, and a few million more massacred by Pol Pot?s rampage in Cambodia.

Not only is such a comparison stupid but also it is irresponsible. If it is true that such situations create terrorists, as Durbin suggests, then it probably doesn?t help to exaggerate a point beyond believability. Al-Jazeera was originally going to use a headline that read ?Infidels torture prisoner with bad music and Florida-like weather,? but now they can use more entertaining headlines like ?U.S. Senator likens torture of Muslims to Holocaust, millions of Muslims likely incinerated by giant oven.? Hey, Durbin, thanks! You make us proud.

But the idea that liberals have of normal Arabs sitting around just waiting for that breaking point as to where they decide to check into a terrorist training camp and blow themselves to pieces because they are super-angry is rather absurd. Normal Arabs don?t do that; the crazy ones do. And the crazy ones are already terrorists.

But that is beside the point. Americans are bad. Bad, bad, bad! Among the other things we do to American-hating terrorists and 9/11 co-conspirators is: feed them seven-course, culturally-aware meals, allow them to pray six thousand times a day, and give them prayer beads and prayer oil. (As opposed to mass starvation, denial of religious services, or random removal of bodies from heads.)

Inasmuch as hundreds of thousands of people risk their lives just to sneak into our country, which they sometimes call the Great Satan, it is rather obvious that our atrocities aren?t quite atrocious enough. If we are going to be accused of doing really, really mean things to ruthless savages we might as well do them already. No offense, but putting on puppet shows and playing Christina Aguilera CD?s (our other documented forms of ?mistreatment?) sounds less like the activities of hardened torture facility and more like those of Neverland Ranch.

My personal choice would be the Saddam Treatment, a unique brand of torture developed and tested by the former dictator himself, which would be equally suitable (and oh, how ironic!) for testing on his Gitmo-detained former subordinates. If Arafat was the Father of Modern Terrorism then Saddam is the Father of Modern Torture. In his pre-dictator days, Saddam worked at perfecting torture techniques. Such innovative torture ideas included eye-gouging, the drilling of holes in a person?s hands and pouring acid on the open wounds, raping women with broken glass bottles, tying victims up and slowly lowering them into pools of acid, cutting off ears and tongues, ripping out finger and toenails, and among many other things, giving heavy electric shocks to the body and genitals. But hey, at least he didn?t make them watch re-runs of the Golden Girls.

I?m sure that Congress will continue to argue for closing down the prison for absurd reasons, most likely with a brave bipartisan effort including liberal Republican Arlen Specter and liberal drunk Ted Kennedy. But if we must close Gitmo down, can we at leasWhat Could Be Worse Than Gitmo?'>What Could Be Worse Than Gitmo?

By George H. Wittman

For those of us -- and there are millions -- who have gone through U.S. Arthe complaints of Senator Richard Durbin regarding the treatment of the prisoners at Camp Delta in Guantanamo are laughable. Camp Delta in Guantanamo are laughable.

One wonders what Durbin and the folks at Amnesty International would say if their little darlings had been forced to stand at attention in 100-degree heat for two or more hours at Fort Jackson or Camp Lejeune in full combat gear, with 60 pounds of ammo and equipment, waiting for a general inspection. "What time did you get up, soldier?" the inspecting officer invariably asks the first trooper in line. The answer is always the same. "Reveille, sir." As long as you said that, you didn't have to admit you and your buddies had been up for 36 hours straight "G I-ing" the barracks, the company street, your weapons and everything that moved or stood in the area.

"Drop down and give me 20, 30, 50," the training cadre would demand, and the shaved head recruit falls to the ground and completes his push-ups -- sometimes to the point of exhaustion for those not in top condition. The heel of the corporal on your back tends to make the task a bit more difficult. Gosh, we should have had some of those ACLU lawyers.

Another fine element of training occurs when a drill sergeant's mouth is so close to yours his shouts spit saliva till it runs down your face. One flinch brings an order for 30 perfect push-ups or an evening of jogging around the company area with a rifle held with both hands above one's head while the miscreant shouts the General Orders.

Definitely too tough for those unfortunate terrorists.

Senator Durbin, whose biography shows he spent the Vietnam War in law school, knows nothing of an American soldier's training life -- and we are talking about only those first eight weeks of basic training, not the far tougher regimen for Ranger, SEAL, Recon or Special Forces.

He says he's appalled the Gitmo terrorists had to sit or stand in stress positions while under interrogation. What about crawling into and cleaning out an eight-foot deep grease pit attached to each mess hall. That's a nice little punishment for arriving late to formation. Or what about a 25-mile march with a full field pack, your weapon and ammo, and only one canteen of water?

Senator Durbin is deeply worried about the impression that is caused internationally when a terrorist prisoner complains his "space" has been invaded by a female interrogator. Oh, dear me, did that female make the poor prisoner feel badly? An American soldier yearns for such "intimidation." A recruit has no "space." He or she is government property.

From what type of mental illness does Senator Durbin suffer? What country has Durbin been inhabiting? From what planet does this civilian feather merchant come? Senator, don't insult the hundreds of thousands of on-duty servicemen and women and the millions of veterans by your politically inspired pettifogging complaints.

Perhaps Senator Durbin doesn't understand what it takes to be an American soldier or Marine. Perhaps he thinks the families of the terrorists should be thought of before the families of the victims of 9/11 or those of our fallen warriors. He speaks of Guantanamo as an embarrassment. It is he who embarrasses those who have served.

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i couldn't care less what the military training is, it is besides the point. the point is we are breaking international law, defying the constitution, and treating people suspected of being guilty like they have already been tried.

its wrong, who cares what joe military has to go through, he volunteered for that job. these people, yes they are people, are SUSPECTED by the government of being enemies and are thrown in this gulag. i cant believe people actually think its okay to do this. just shows the ignorance or lack of humility some people show.

the real embarrassment is the people who write articles like that. :no: sad that people can be so brainwashed :no:

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what on earth are u talking about?  how does the UN suck?  what is your reasoning?  is it that they saw through the lies presented by the us about going to iraq?  what is so wrong with the UN, i dont understand comments like that, the un brings peace and order to situations, how is that bad unless you llike sensless death :rolleyes:

What you need to remember is that the UN is not one sole organization with one agenda, but rather many, many seperate nations with seperate agendas, desires and ways in which they go about accomplishing things. This, unfortunately, does not always result in peace and order. Under certain circumstances, how can it?

durbin may have gone to the extreme in his statement, but i understand what he meant and unfortunatly i am forced to agree.

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What should be our response then, to statements that go to the extreme? And in this case, statments that have been interpreted to be anti-military etc? (I say this, as none of us has the ability to read Durbin's mind, and thus his intent in the statements).

Consider Trent Lott, if you will, and then consider if we should hold that "extreme" statements, whatever they are, have consequences.

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his statements were not anti military, they were commenting on the treatment authorized by some higher up towards prisoners of war or suspected terrorists. his words were twisted, just like trent lott. i dont like what trent lott said, i dont like it at all. i think of his comments 10 times as worse as durbins, but i dont think trent should have had to resign, and i dont think durbin should. his comments are extreme (not racist but yea extreme), but thinkn about it, who WOULD allow such treatment to prisoners? is he not right in a sense? durbin isnt refering to our military as being nazi or soviet, hes refering to the orders being issued as such.

about the un, you are right, but the un is very influencial and helpful. the world only stands to gain from un support. where would be be without it?

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when I said about ****ing off the un, I didn't mean a big UN army would start a war, I mean if the us continues to start wars without reason, defy international treaties that are in place to protect human rights and minimize civilian casualties, that will cause problems. MOST countries already look down on the us for being power hungry and greedy, if they pulled out of the un for some reason, that could cause multiple countries to declare war. The us is the most powerful nation on the planet, but if canada shut it's boarders and stopped free trade, that would do a lot to damage the economy, and there are clearly a lot of countries with enough people in them that don't like the us that, if they had a way to get there, would take out as many people as possible before they died.

The us is a superpower, but that is contingent on the other countries of the world supporting it. If everyone stops listening to the us and stopped trade, it would cripple the country.

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his statements were not anti military, they were commenting on the treatment authorized by some higher up

A military "higher up" is still the military, unless you were referring to someone else.

is he not right in a sense?

I don't think he was right in making that comparison, no. There IS no comparison. He could have said what needed to be said, not on the floor, and in a much more tactful manner.

I actually feel the worst, not for the detainees, but for those soldiers in Guantanamo that had to hear Durbin's statement. Whether or not they "misinterpreted" it is beside the point, it was extreme and shouldn't have been said.

durbin isnt refering to our military as being nazi or soviet, hes refering to the orders being issued as such.

I'm going to have to disagree with you there. If you remember the Nuremburg Trials, what was the biggest defense that so many members of the Nazi party gave?

"We were just following orders".

I think Durbin knew what he was talking about.

about the un, you are right, but the un is very influencial and helpful.  the world only stands to gain from un support.  where would be be without it?

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The US would simply have to negotiate with the countries seperately. Which, actually, might not be that bad. There's a lot of pressure in the UN when it comes to holdouts on treaties, which is something to consider when "unanimous" signings take place.

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A military "higher up" is still the military, unless you were referring to someone else.

I don't think he was right in making that comparison, no. There IS no comparison. He could have said what needed to be said, not on the floor, and in a much more tactful manner.

I actually feel the worst, not for the detainees, but for those soldiers in Guantanamo that had to hear Durbin's statement. Whether or not they "misinterpreted" it is beside the point, it was extreme and shouldn't have been said.

I'm going to have to disagree with you there. If you remember the Nuremburg Trials, what was the biggest defense that so many members of the Nazi party gave?

"We were just following orders".

I think Durbin knew what he was talking about.

The US would simply have to negotiate with the countries seperately. Which, actually, might not be that bad. There's a lot of pressure in the UN when it comes to holdouts on treaties, which is something to consider when "unanimous" signings take place.

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You are right, even if he was referrign to the "higher ups" orders, he still is saying that the low level soldier was following the orders on par with the Hitler's, Stalin's, and Pol Pot's foot soldier. He WAS equating all of them, he said the "military" not the "military leaders".

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Hitler, Hitler, Everywhere

by Victor Davis Hanson

Tribune Media Services

June 28, 2005

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) was not alone when he recently compared American behavior at Guantanamo Bay to that of "Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime - Pol Pot or others - that had no concern for human beings."

Tarring Bush and co. with Hitlerian imagery has become a debased parlor game. Politicians and other public figures toss about these charged references, expecting to create a buzz and assuming that their audience is as uninformed as they are.

Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) cited the Holocaust to blast American policy in Iraq: "This is just as bad as the 6 million Jews being killed." In his upside-down world, the mass murderer is the moral equivalent of those who stop him. Before Rangel, Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) evoked Nazi Germany to warn about the Bush administration.

An official of the Red Cross lectured that American guards at Guantanamo were "no better than and no different than the Nazi concentration camp guards." Left unsaid was the logical sick corollary: If the perpetrators of the Holocaust were really no worse than American guards at Guantanamo, then, as is the case at Guantanamo where not one death has been reported, did no one really perish at Belsen or Treblinka, either?

And these people aren't the only ones to stoop to play this game. There's also been NAACP Chairman Julian Bond ("The American flag and the Confederate swastika"), former Ohio Sen. John Glenn ("It's the old Hitler business"), Garrison Keillor ("Brownshirts in pinstripes"), Linda Ronstadt ("A new bunch of Hitlers") and Al Gore ("Digital brownshirts").

Why suddenly is Hitler popping up everywhere when the Nazis have absolutely

no relation with a democratic United States or a humane military?

Time Magazine recently reported that when the suspected 20th Sept. 11 hijacker, Mohammed al-Qahtani, was in distress, he was given a CAT scan and put on a heart monitor, while a radiologist was flown to Cuba for consultation.

In contrast, is Sen. Durbin aware that the Nazis laid railroad tracks to the very gates of Auschwitz to facilitate its engine of mass death, an industry that would take over 6 million people? Or can he grasp the idea of 25 million perishing in the gulag - the population of Durbin's home state of Illinois being exterminated twice over?

Note the escalating frustration behind these outbursts. Although an occasional conservative like Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) has stooped to Hitlerian slander, most of the offenders, such as Michael Moore (comparing the Patriot Act to "Mein Kampf") or George Soros (saying Bush reminded him of "the Germans"), are on the left, furious over their inability to affect the course of events.

Since Sept. 11, we have had midterm and national elections, both referenda on the so-called war against terror. Those on the left have lost the majority of state legislatures, governorships, the House, the Senate, the presidency and perhaps the Supreme Court. If normal debate somehow didn't rile up the somnolent American people, why not try conjuring up the ghosts of Hitler or Stalin?

There is also an asymmetry in these slurs. Few mention that there really are monsters and mass killers living among us - the North Koreans who have starved 1 million of their own, Saddam's reign of terror that may have killed as many, and, of course, the Islamicist murderers who behead, blow up and torture. "Mein Kampf" still is selling well in some Arab capitals, not in Washington or New York.

So cowards such as officials of the Red Cross and Amnesty International, and, yes, American politicians, prefer to showboat the purported misdemeanors of those who are civilized and will listen to them, rather than to condemn the horrendous felonies of those who are barbaric and will not pay them heed.

As a result, the bar is lowering. In today's climate, Alfred Knopf has already published a novel about killing the president. Charlie Brooker writing in the Guardian in London prayed for another Lee Harvey Oswald to take out George W. Bush. Comedians, New York plays and art exhibits also bandy about assassination.

Each time a public official evokes Hitler to demonize the president, the American effort in Iraq or its conservative supporters, cheap rhetorical fantasy becomes only that much closer to a nightmarish reality where the unstable, here and abroad, act on the belief that America really is Hitler's Germany.

We will all soon reap what the ignorant are now sowing.

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Do we have to actually read all this copy and paste pulled from Freepers?

Durbin's spoke......he's made his apology. It's gonna have to surfice as I'm gussing that's as good as it gets with him.

Now it's Rove's turn. What do you suppose he's gonna do?

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an interesting read.

Durbin, Daley, Democrats, and the New American Militarism

United States Senator Richard Durbin (D-Illinois) should resign ? for backing down to ignorant and authoritarian militarists like Richard M. Daley, the longtime ?Democratic? Mayor of Chicago.

Durbin, as most ZNet readers surely know, recently faced a barrage of criticism from the White House, Fox News, and other hyper-militarist outposts of the in-power American right. The reason? He dared to tell a small part of the terrible truth about how Uncle Sam is conducting its terrorist ?war on terror.?

read the rest here: http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=8157

if you aren't familiar with it, zmag/znet is a website devoted to social change, activism, and intellectual commentary. some notable regulars are chomsky, zinn, and albert.

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