OPINION:
The report on enhanced interrogation techniques released by Sen. Dianne Feinstein and her Democratic colleagues on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is contemptible. Arguably, it borders on the edge of treason, as it most assuredly will give aid and comfort to our enemies. At the very least, the report has handed the terrorists a major propaganda victory. At worst, it may lead to retaliatory attacks in the United States or against American targets abroad.
In popular culture, the term “Marquess of Queensberry rules” refers to conduct with a sense of sportsmanship and fair play. It’s hard to escape the sense that the driving motivation behind the Senate’s report is to shame the United States for not playing fair with the terrorists who are bent on trying to kill us. I have a news flash for the Democrats on the intelligence committee: The war against Islamist terrorist groups and their twisted ideology is not a game. It is a brutal reality, and the terrorists don’t play fair.
If the videos of beheadings by Islamic State terrorists are not enough to convince Americans that we’re dealing with monsters, the eight-hour rampage by Taliban gunmen at the Army Public School and Degree College in Pakistan should. According to media reports, some of the 1,100 students at the school were lined up and slaughtered with shots to the head. Some were callously gunned down as they cowered under their desks, and some were even forced to watch as their teachers were riddled with bullets. In the rose-colored world of the Senate report, simply going up to one of the terrorist fanatics in Pakistan and saying, “Please Sir, don’t hurt that boy” would have stopped the slaughter. In reality, it would have earned the unlucky person trying that stunt a bullet to the face.
We cannot be naive about our enemy. The truth is that fanatics bent on destruction will strike anytime, anywhere with anything at hand, and they are willing to die to accomplish their goal.
Being nice isn’t going to stop them. It’s naive to think politely asking the terrorists to cough up their secrets would have given us the information we needed. It’s absurd. It wasn’t going to happen. We must do whatever it takes to stop them. Nor should we be ashamed of doing what it takes to protect American lives.
The men who fought in World War II are known as heroes of the “Greatest Generation” and rightly celebrated for saving the world from Nazism and militarism. We romanticize World War II as a “good war.” It was a good war in that our cause was right and just. But it was also a brutal war, which was why many World War II veterans never talked about their experiences on the battlefield, particularly those who fought in the Pacific theater. Although some Japanese were taken prisoner, most fought until they were killed or committed suicide. In fact, one of the most enduring images of the war is that of the kamikaze pilots, plowing their planes packed with high explosives into American warships. Even today, the word “kamikaze” conjures up visions of crazed, mindless destruction. The Japanese soldier in World War II was a fanatic who fought without mercy, and our soldiers did what they needed to do to survive and ultimately win.
Todays’ Islamist terrorist is also a fanatic who fights without mercy. This isn’t just my opinion; it’s the opinion of the bipartisan 9/11 Commission:
“Bin Laden and Islamist terrorists mean exactly what they say: To them America is the font of all evil, the ’head of the snake,’ and it must be converted or destroyed. It is not a position with which Americans can bargain or negotiate. With it there is no common ground — not even respect for life — on which to dialogue. It can only be destroyed or utterly isolated.”
This is the lesson of Sept. 11 that we must never forget. As in World War II, the cause we fight for is right and just, but the fight is brutal. We must do what it takes to destroy our enemy. We have no choice. Nor should we lose any sleep because we are not shaking hands and being polite to the guys trying to cut off our heads. In this war of survival, winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing. We must do whatever it takes to defeat these radical terrorists.
• Former Rep. Dan Burton, Indiana Republican, was a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and chairman of its Europe, Eurasia and emerging threats subcommittee.
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