By Mary Mostert, Analyst, Banner of Liberty, (www.bannerofliberty.com)
June 1, 2004
Last Tuesday former vice-president Al Gore delivered a speech that reminded me of the behavior of one of George Washington’s generals during the Revolution. He had served with honor during the early years of the Revolution, and even had made a rash, but effective sortie in the Battle of Saratoga against the outnumbered British forces under Major General Burgoyne. Seeing an opening, and without orders, Benedict Arnold led a charge into the ranks of the Hessian soldiers that was the decisive moment of the battle and led to the defeat of the British troops.
Like the defeat of Saddam Hussein last year, General Burgoyne’s defeat in the battle of Saratoga in 1777 changed world politics. France and Spain, at the prodding of then Ambassador Benjamin Franklin, saw it would be a smart move to help the Americans with money and armaments to defeat their old enemy, Britain.
Benedict Arnold disagreed on tactics with both congress and his commanding officer, General Gates. He was removed from command at Saratoga by Gates. However, Benedict Arnold was promoted by Congress and given the command of West Point. It was his resentment at not being given credit for the victory at Saratoga that some say led him to betray his country. He believed he should have been promptly promoted to Major General and given credit for the victory.
Two years after receiving praise for his part in the defeat of British forces at Saratoga, a disgruntled Benedict Arnold began secretly negotiating with a British officer, John André, to surrender West Point. Control of West Point would have enabled the British to use the Hudson River to transport troops and materials to and from Canada and ended the Colonies bid for freedom.
Benedict Arnold’s biggest problem was his arrogance. He thought he would be a much better job as a general than George Washington and thought the Continental Congress wrong to adopt the Declaration of Independence. .
Al Gore expressed pretty much the same kind of thinking about America’s current commander in chief, George W. Bush. He began his talk by saying:
“George W. Bush promised us a foreign policy with humility. Instead, he has brought us humiliation in the eyes of the world.”
From there it got worse. As he warmed to his topic he demanded the resignation of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, his deputies Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith, intelligence chief Stephen Cambone, Condoleeza Rice, director of national security, George Tenet, Director of Central Intelligence.
And what does Al Gore suggest as replacements? He thinks John Kerry is:
“Dealing with this unfolding tragedy in an impressive and extremely responsible way. Our nation's best interest lies in having a new president who can turn a new page, sweep clean with a new broom, and take office on January 20th of next year with the ability to make a fresh assessment of exactly what our nation's strategic position is as of the time the reigns of power are finally wrested from the group of incompetents that created this catastrophe.”
However, he also said, in the same breath, that:
“Kerry should not tie his own hands by offering overly specific, detailed proposals concerning a situation that is rapidly changing.”
So, voters haven’t a clue as to what Kerry and Gore would do. Gore ended his speech by complaining about the December 2000 Supreme Court decision to halt the ballot manipulation in Florida he was engaged in (not counting military absentee ballots while only recounting ballots in heavily Democrat precincts) and accusing President Bush of deciding “not to honor the Geneva Convention” at Abu Ghraib prison.
Of course, the Geneva Convention states it applies to “all cases of declared war or of any other armed conflict which may arise between two or more of the High Contracting Parties, even if the state of war is not recognized by one of them.” Terrorists are not “high contracting parties” of the Geneva Convention.
It appears that Gore is quite a bit more stressed out than the people of Iraq. For example, Ibrahim al-Idrissi, 37, president of the Association for Free Prisoners, an Iraqi non-governmental organization who told Lebanon’s Daily Star, “What we have seen about the recent abuse at Abu Ghraib is a joke to us."
Why a joke? Idrissi has been documenting the execution of political prisoners under the regime of Saddam Hussein since the fall of Iraq. Remember there were hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who were executed by Saddam Hussein and his sons. Idrissi told how it was done:
"They called all the prisoners out to the courtyard for what they called a 'celebration.' We all knew what they meant by 'celebration.' All the prisoners were chained to a pipe that ran the length of the courtyard wall. One prisoner, Amer al-Tikriti, was called out. They said if he didn't tell them everything they wanted to know, they would show him torture like he had never seen. He merely told them he would show them patience like they had never seen.""This is when they brought out his wife, who was five months pregnant. One of the guards said that if he refused to talk he would get 12 guards to rape his wife until she lost the baby. Amer said nothing. So they did. We were forced to watch. Whenever one of us cast down his eyes, they would beat us."
"Amer's wife didn't lose the baby. So the guard took a knife, cut her belly open and took the baby out with his hands. The woman and child died minutes later. Then the guard used the same knife to cut Amer's throat."
According to Idrissi, the target of two recent assassination attempts, many of Saddam's torturers and executioners are still at large. No matter. Al Gore believes Idrissi and other Iraqis would be better off with Saddam Hussein in control of Iraq, instead of George W. Bush who, he claims, “has made the threat of terrorism to be “infinitely worse.” And, he thinks the Iraqis who suffered those atrocities are enraged because a few Americans got rough trying to get information out of the people like those previous Abu Ghraib torturers when they are caught.
Sounds just like Benedict Arnold who stated in his Address to the Inhabitants of America justifying his treason that the Declaration of Independence was a mistake and America’s “worst enemies” were the Continental Congress and those patriots, like George Washington, who were fighting for independence.
To Comment: Mary Mostert