Nina May’s daily commentary

To put some perspective on the sudden concern for the terrorists who have been incarcerated to prevent them from blowing themselves up and taking other lives, I suggest our three-blind-mice Republican Senators meet Aminatou Haidar. She is a Saharawi who made the unfortunate mistake of assuming that the United Nations really cares about upholding its charter and protecting the rights of the oppressed, the abused, the invaded and occupied territories as they now conveniently claim they do, by opposing the US presence in Iraq.
For almost a quarter of a century, Western Sahara has been fighting for its independence against Morocco, its northern neighbor, that invaded the minute Spain decolonized and pulled up stakes. They claimed that Western Sahara was always a part of Morocco, even though they miraculously escaped colonization by Spain in the late 1800s and oddly, did not oppose the Spanish occupation for over 75 years. Only suddenly, did it dawn on them, the minute the Spanish occupation ended that, oh my gosh, this phosphorous rich land with a huge coastline on the western side of Africa, is really part of Morocco. They have been in Western Sahara ever since . . . splitting the country with a mine-laden burm that imprisons half the inhabitants, all under the “watchful” and acquiesant eye of the United Nations.
So 27 years later, a young Muslim woman, named Aminatou Haidar, joins a peaceful demonstration to oppose this ongoing occupation and hostility by Morocco and their willing accomplice, the United Nations. She, and 72 others are arrested, beaten and thrown into prison without a trial while the UN forces, stood idly by, pretending to see nothing. She was placed in solitary confinement, blindfolded, beaten and tortured daily, and denied even the right to bathe. . . for almost four years.
Where is the outrage by Senators Warner, McCain & Graham, who are spilling blood from their bleeding hearts over terrorists who have as their determined purpose and mission to murder anyone not like them . . .even three US Senators who are living in a clueless vacuum. It is interesting that they can spend so much time equating terrorists without a country or uniform with our brave men and women who are covered by the Geneva Convention, yet they won’t apply the aspect of the rules of engagement to the length of time a POW will be incarcerated. That time is to last until the conflict has ended. So, which parts of the rules of engagement and capture in the “Geneva Convention” do these rocket scientists want to apply and which ones don’t they? For them it is about “doing the right thing.”
Well then . . .. I suggest they have their work cut out for themselves. There are 20 million innocent women and children who are being bought and sold on a regular basis in the very lucrative human trafficking “business.” They are kept in inhumane conditions, they don’t have ACLU trial attorneys flying around the world to take their cases, ensure their rights are upheld and their conditions are comfortable. Why aren’t these three Republican Senators, and the dozens of Democratic Senators standing up for these victims of slavery, with the same righteous indignation they stand up for committed suicide murderers?
In the case of Aminatou, the US position is that Morocco is an ally and we can’t possibly do anything to alienate or upset them. Iraq used to be an ally too, and we have troops on the ground there because our national security was threatened. So that is the standard for invading and occupying a country? No, not necessarily. Remember Serbia, Kosovo, Albania, etc? They were of no threat or consequence to the United States directly, yet we invaded those countries under the pretense of stopping genocide and oppression.
So what are the reasons that the US government will stand up for, or get involved in the pain and suffering of innocent people . . . emphasis on the word “innocent.”
We obviously have turned a blind eye to the human trafficking issue, for whatever reason. Western Sahara has been languishing under UN and Moroccan occupation for over 25 years and the citizens still can’t even get passports to leave their invaded country and see their loved ones in the refugee camps in southern Algeria. The wars and genocide continue to wage in the Sudan, Somalia, Sierra Leone, et al, around the world, and all our US Senators can focus on is the comfort, care and feeding of the detainees who, if released, would kill each one of them in a heart beat. That is their mission . . . that is their reason for being . . . that is what they were raised to live and die for.
Because Aminatou and the millions of other prisoners desire freedom for themselves and their families, and an opportunity to just live in peace . . . they languish in a benign world of irrelevance because their cause of freedom and justice has no value in the political market place, and to help them requires rare currency that is reserved for the larger, more visible causes . . . like the care and feeding of terrorists.
The concern for many is that if we continue to detain people who want to kill us and our neighbors, that the world is going to hate us. The world doesn’t need a reason. France doesn’t need a reason, Barbara Streisand, the Dixie Chicks, Sean Penn, Michael Moore, et al., don’t need a reason. They hate America and everything we stand for and not because of Iraq, or Guantanamo, or the easy, obvious reasons. They, like the terrorists, hate this country because we debate issues of right and wrong and acknowledge that there are absolutes based on God’s divine design for man. They, like the terrorists, wish this country was a reflection of their vacuum of values and hate anything that suggests there are acts that reflect evil, and if continued unchecked would usher in the annihilation of the human race. While defending the rights of terrorists and world dictators, turning their back on the unborn and those bought and sold on the black market, they have made a moral determination that some life is more valuable and sacred than others, and should therefore be saved, protected and preserved at the expense of all other life.
As Aminatou, a Muslim woman, sat blindfolded, for four years, in a Muslim country, I am sure she must have pondered how her desire for freedom resulted in this type of punishment, when all she wanted for herself and her family was the right to self-determination and liberty. Many ask why there are no moderate Muslims speaking out against the atrocities of a handful of Islam fascists . . . it is because they are imprisoned when they do. These are the people our Senators should be focusing their efforts on, finding justice for, and allowing their causes to receive the power of the forum, in the marketplace of ideas. That would be a noble cause indeed.

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