American Prisoners of War

by Dennis Green

In all the tightly-controlled news reports about American fighting, casualties and attacks, there are two kinds of events we rarely hear about, if at all — the taking of American troops as prisoners or their killing or wounding by friendly fire. The truth about Pat Tillman finally came out, after months of lies by U.S. officers — including General MacCrystal — and by civilian government leaders.

But the issue of U.S. POWs is a serious one, because of the way we have treated insurgents taken prisoner, at both Abu Garabe and Guantanimo prisons. We have used torture and many forms of humiliation to try and punish or break the spirit of these prisoners. Critics such as John McCain have expressed the fear and concern that American POWs could suffer the same fate, or worse, if we don’t honor the Geneva Convention ourselves.

At least one American reporter and other prisoners have been shown in videos taken by Al Qaeda being beheaded, and we’re left with the impression that the “enemy,” whomever he might be, doesn’t take U.S. troops alive, or leave them alive for very long. But of course this isn’t true.

The latest example is captured GI Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl, featured in a Taliban video released on Christmas day denouncing U.S. forces in Afghanistan in a 36-minute tape. In the video, Bergdahl is wearing combat fatigues and a regulation helmet, seems fit and well-fed, and may even be sincere.

Bergdahl disappeared from his post on June 30, and is believed to have simply walked away, for unknown reasons. In the video, he is quite specific about why he believes that the U.S. mission in Afghanistan is misguided, foolhardy and doomed to failure, sentiments expressed here at home by many, including Vice President Joe Biden.

The U.S. Army claims that he is reading from a prepared statement, speaking under duress and that such propaganda by the Taliban cannot be supported by fact. But Berdahl’s disappearance from his post in the eastern Afghanistan province of Paktika, and his subsequent capture, are mysterious to say the least.

I don’t know whether American captors of insurgent forces, Iraqi and Afghan POWs held at Guantanimo, or transported to prisons in other countries have ever been videotaped denouncing Al Qaeda or the Taliban or Iraqi mullahs, then shown on “Air America” or some other official Western propaganda outlet, but I wouldn’t be surprised. In fact, if we don’t use such tactics, I’d be disappointed. So far as I know, we don’t behead them, but probably make them wish we did.

War is hell, a dirty business, etc. blah-blah-blah. And the rules of civilized conduct have been overlooked and ignored since the first son of man raised his fist against his brother. We are a vicious and a quarrelsome species, and prone to get the upper hand, until we lose the next war, and then we retreat like a wounded puppy, as we did from Vietnam, hide under the house for a few years licking our wounds, and stay out of sight.

But obviously, if we are taking hundreds of prisoners on the battlefield, so is the enemy, no matter whom he may be. And those “journalists” taken prisoner in North Korea…the “hikers” captured in Iran… could they possibly be CIA operatives? Given the lack of transparency in our government, we’ll never know.

©2009 Dennis Green