Obama: ‘We Are Not at War With Islam’

“We are not at war with Islam” – That’s what Mr. Bush 2 also said. I don’t know why this made news.

I never thought we were, just radical extremist who happen to be mostly Muslins.

Good of President Obama to apologize to the rest of the world for America’s many sins. He just forgot to mention that if it wasn’t for the United States, all of Europe would be speaking German right about now.
I’m glad they liked him. Too bad they told him to go blow when he wanted troops in Afghanistan and a commitment to stimulus money. I’m surprised he didn’t brand them all racists.

“We are not at war with Islam” – That’s what Mr. Bush 2 also said…”
But after invading Iraq to destroy WMDs that it turned out they didn’t have and throwing a lot of Muslims into prison camps with no charges and torturing some of them etc. etc., they just started not to believe him.

He just forgot to mention that if it wasn’t for the United States, all of Europe would be speaking German right about now.
I’m glad they liked him. Too bad they told him to go blow when he wanted troops in Afghanistan and a commitment to stimulus money. I’m surprised he didn’t brand them all racists.
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Hmmmm……. the GIFT they must keep paying for?
Let’s not exchange gifts ok?

“lot of Muslims into prison camps with no charges ”
It is not a crime to be an enemy combatant. Enemy combatants are not arrested, they are captured as combatants when they are acting as combatants and no charges need to be made. They are detained in prison or prison camps.
This is why there are “no charges” on some of those combatants heing held at Guantanamo. At end of wars, POW’s are released but not charges.
These guys being released that you think are innocent may be innocent of crimes but are not innocent of beiong enemy combatants.

It is not a crime to be an enemy combatant.
These guys being released that you think are innocent may be innocent of crimes but are not innocent of beiong enemy combatants.
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Out of your mouth in the same post.
Read it and think about it.

Those darn radical islamist extremist terrrrist comittin tyrrrany. Where is George Bush when we need him.
We need his strategerie in smokin these radical islamist extremist out of their holes.

“being protected by the Geneva Convention as POWs.”
What are POWs charged with under Geneva Convention?

“What are POWs charged with under Geneva Convention?”
They are charged with being bad guys and locked up.
They are protected from being tortured.

“They are protected from being tortured.”
I’ll agree to that.
So, you do see that this fuss about “innocent” people being detained as POW does not necessarily require they be charged?
If not, what charges is a POW charged with under Geneva Convention?

“It has turned out to be a recruitment bonanza for militant extremists. ”
You mean like : Join Al Queda, kill people and if you’re caught by the US alive, you get to live in glorious Cuba, three nutritious meals a day, private quarters, cable TV and free laundry service and Bonus: Free toilet paper.

“I am not aware that the detainees at Gitmo have ever been referred to as POWs.’
What did you think they were called? Dancing Bears?

“What did you think they were called? Dancing Bears?”
OK let me reverse the question: Do you think all the detainees at Gitmo were treated properly according to the Geneva Convention?

“OK let me reverse the question: Do you think all the detainees at Gitmo were treated properly according to the Geneva Convention? ”
I don’t have any way of knowing that. If you are asking if I support torture, that would depend on you mean by torture. I would not want our policy to be procedure that would physically injure or cause permanent damage. Water boarding iom is debatable – we use it on our own agents and military personnel as a training procedure.
No need to debate that – if you disagree, that’s OK, that’s your opinion.

How to tell that we are now living in Dreamland:
“ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. – Windmills off the East Coast could generate enough electricity to replace most, if not all, the coal-fired power plants in the United States, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Monday. But those numbers were challenged as ‘overly optimistic’ by a coal industry group, which noted that half the nation’s electricity currently comes from coal-fired power plants.”

“It’s just that if the detainees are obviously POWs as you seem to be asserting, and we did torture any of them which many claim that we did, then we’re guilty of war crimes aren’t we?”
Well, they were “enemy combatants”, now they’re detainees (like POW).
If there is a complaint, there will be a charge, there will be a trial. If it is found that an illegal torture procedure was applied in the trial, there would be a verdict, most likely a guilty verdict.

I just think that there is no way to properly explain to the rest of the world, especially the Muslim world, how we can continue to operate that prison with honor. We need to either treat the detainees as POWs or charge them with crimes and bring them to trial. I agree with those who think that Muslim extremists exploit its existence to gain followers who then attack our forces. If Americans really want to support our troops in the field by actually reducing the numbers of enemy fighters facing them, they’ll reach deep down inside themselves and try and find the guts to close that disgraceful prison.

“I agree with those who think that Muslim extremists exploit its existence to gain followers who then attack our forces.”
Do you think these terrorists don’t torture? Or that if they are caught they won’t be thrown into some prison? If we had a policy of cutting their heads off if caught, do you think this would recruit more terrorists?
So if we close Guantanamo, terrorism goes away? I think it’s an absurd argument.

The military has even said that there is no way to kill all of the terrorists. The only way to win is to prevent the extremists from recruiting more fighters. We must make peace with the Muslim world to cut off and isolate terrorist organizations.

“If you are asking if I support torture, that would depend on you mean by torture. I would not want our policy to be procedure that would physically injure or cause permanent damage. Water boarding iom is debatable – we use it on our own agents and military personnel as a training procedure.”
Sigmond – Christopher Hitchens, journalist, had similar feelings about water-boarding. He decided to have it done to himself to see for himself. Go read his article on the subject in Vanity Fair (available on-line) I’ll just say, he ended the piece with this:
” Well, then, if waterboarding does not constitute torture, then there is no such thing as torture.”

“Christopher Hitchens,”
So, was it his waterboarding experience that made him brain dead?
I have seen the video of that as well as videos of our special teams that have had it applied. It is very effective, as it should be. Obama will use it if a critical emergency arises. As I’ve said. He’s no fool.

“Japanese Soldiers were convicted of war crimes for water-boarding allied soldiers.”
They also water boarded them to death. Chopped fingers off as they water boarded. And much more. Nasty business. No wonder they were convicted of war crimes

Silky Johnson,
“Christians have been bombing clinics and wearing sheets and torturing and killing blacks for years, yet, oddly, we are not at war with Christians.”
Your point is valid.
How does a simple listing of facts equate to an indictment of the entire Arab world? Was your statement an attack against all Christens? I didn’t take it that way,
The real point is that the President’s statement that we are not at war with Islam will not will not advance anything. No one ever claimed to be at war with Islam, especially the former president who went out of his way to state otherwise. It seems that President Obama’s policy is much the same as President Bush’s policy. Let us hope he is as successful in preventing attacks at home, and even more so at preventing attacks abroad (e.g Spain, London, Bali, Mumbai).

Sigmond -
The United States knows quite a bit about waterboarding. The U.S. government — whether acting alone before domestic courts, commissions and courts-martial or as part of the world community — has not only condemned the use of water torture but has severely punished those who applied it.
After World War II, we convicted several Japanese soldiers for waterboarding American and Allied prisoners of war. At the trial of his captors, then-Lt. Chase J. Nielsen, one of the 1942 Army Air Forces officers who flew in the Doolittle Raid and was captured by the Japanese, testified: “I was given several types of torture. . . . I was given what they call the water cure.” He was asked what he felt when the Japanese soldiers poured the water. “Well, I felt more or less like I was drowning,” he replied, “just gasping between life and death.”
Nielsen’s experience was not unique. Nor was the prosecution of his captors. After Japan surrendered, the United States organized and participated in the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, generally called the Tokyo War Crimes Trials. Leading members of Japan’s military and government elite were charged, among their many other crimes, with torturing Allied military personnel and civilians. The principal proof upon which their torture convictions were based was conduct that we would now call waterboarding.
(Wallach – Washington Post)

“The principal proof upon which their torture convictions were based was conduct that we would now call water boarding. ”
Show me the case files and not cut and paste articles from a journalist. You will find it is not so cut and dry. But thanks for responding. As I said earlier, I don’t want to debate whether it’s torture or not. I believe it is not and if you disagree, that’s OK with me..

cilla- good reminder on Bali. Too many people forget that bombing.
Bali itself is mostly Hindu, although you are correct that Indonesia is the most populous Muslim nation. The bombings there killed mostly Balinese people, and they almost destroyed their tourism-based economy. They *hate* terrorism, and they dare to say so.
People also forget the terrorism that wracked the Philippines well before the Iraq war. Remember Martin Burnham?
What I would like from President Obama is a tiny defense of America, every so often, and praise of this country from a time in the past 25 years, but before he was President.

skip said:I just think that there is no way to properly explain to the rest of the world, especially the Muslim world, how we can continue to operate that prison with honor.
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Tell me which of these countries you would dare to spend time in prion in, or trust their judicial systems:
Turkey, Indonesia, Iran, Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan…..?

While you may think Bush et al are already guilty, I prefer to wait and see if there is a trial, the evidence, the jury, the case, and the determination if water boarding is torture or not, before judging anyone.’
Tom Ridge, Bush’s first Homeland Security Secretary and his Director of National Intelligence among others from his administration have come out and said that water boarding is torture.
Waterboarding is considered torture by
This is not a referendum on Bush, but the US can not sit on the UN council against torture while publicly admitting we have done so and will continue to do so ourselves.
Conveniently, we have hundreds of hours of missing interrogation tapes related to this topic – if it’s not torture, why are we hiding them?
If it’s not torture – why can’t they be POW’s and go under Article 3 of the Geneva Convention?

Why do we not hear complaints about the terrorists torturing people. We water board three terrorists and the terrorists keep torturing and killing innocents worldwide. They cut heads off, kill children, women. But, we water board three terrorists and we’re the bad guys.

We make some pretty big claims in this country about being the greatest nation on earth, the guardians of democracy and the protectors of freedom. Are we willing to do the hard work and have the courage to make the sacrifices and take the risks to live up to it?

“Americans have been doing that for a long time. Why do you think that is something new or something we should be doing?”
Because many many Americans including myself feel that the prison camp at Gitmo that we’ve been arguing about all night is a clear departure from those principles regardless of the whole waterboarding controversy.

We make some pretty big claims in this country about being the greatest nation on earth, the guardians of democracy and the protectors of freedom. Are we willing to do the hard work and have the courage to make the sacrifices and take the risks to live up to it?
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Do we make any claims about being perfect?
I can’t think of a time in our history- especially during war but not only- that we haven’t done somethings outside the box. Some a sin of commission (like FDR’s internment camps) and some omission (Jimmy Carter letting Iran hold the American hostages for so long).
No President has perfectly upheld the ideals.
Our allies have a habit of benefiting from the things we do, then chastising us for doing them. There were multiple nation’s forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, but you notice nobody else offered to hold combatants. You notice they don’t know what to do with the Gitmo guys either.

WHAT A SLIMY SELF PROMOTING PIECE OF GARBAGE OBAMA IS.
Bush frequently praised Islam and was very determined to make the point that we were in a war against terrorism.
Perhaps it is Obama who believes all believers in Islam are terrorists, or perhaps he stupidly took that leap.
His lying implication that we ever declared war on Islam is a reflection of what a scumbag Obama is.
DId Obama remember to mention that members of Islam declared war against the US (Infitada), 2 years prior to 9/11 while Clinton was still in office.
I thought not, then he would have to admit it is not the US or Bush who is at fault for this conflict but radical Islamists who are raised to kill, literally, Americans and Jews.
I have no doubt Obama shares and approves of those values.