Sen. Allard: "Doesn't want to 'tie the hands' of military"

I was glad to see Sen. Allard standing by the Commander in Chief by voting against further rules and constraints on the Defense Departments ability to deal with prisoners and enemy combatants. It's too bad there where not enough Senators with the guts to do the right thing.

The fact is that there are already in place plenty of regulations and rules of conduct. What happened in Iraq was outside of already existing rules. We don't need more rules, we need continued enforcement. The fact is that those that have gone outside the law in the treatment of prisoners have been prosecuted and brought to justice. Creating new legislations and controls over the issue may be politically correct, and may gain you popularity points with the media, but it won't change the past or do anything to improve the future.

Here is the story from the Rocky Mountain News:

The amendment was inspired by reported abuses of detainees in Iraq and at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. But Allard said changing the regulations "does not right the wrong committed by those individuals who were clearly acting outside the Army's existing regulations and laws of our country."

"In fact, all it does is tie the hands of the Department of Defense at a time when maximum flexibility within the boundaries of the U.S. law is needed," Allard said.

Interestingly enough, ColoradoPols thinks this will affect Allard's popularity ratings negatively. I tend to think he didn't care about polls, and cared more about making sure the military has the flexibility it needs to get the job done.

President is adamantly opposed to this amendment and has promised to veto the whole appropriations bill over it. 90-9 is certainly enough to overcome that threat, so the question is really more about how badly this Senatorial insurrection will hurt Bush going forward.

Wayne Allard stands to lose big if he comes out on the wrong side of this one, even if it's the same side as the President. With Bush polling in the upper 30s today, Allard may be missing the writing on the wall...

This, gentlemen, is what is known as leadership--making decisions regardless of polls.

Looking at the other side of the political spectrum, I can't help but cringe at Sen. Salazar's ignorant comments.

"If soldiers across this world know there are these standards the American military is going to abide by, it provides additional protection to our soldiers" if they are captured, Salazar said.

Does he honestly think that just because our military has a stricter code of conduct for the treatment of its prisoners, that Al Qaeda will perhaps not torture our men or treat them with humanity? What sort of additional protection does this provide? All it does is endanger our soldiers as the enemy becomes fearless of an American army whose hands are tied by politically correct policies that weaken our ability to defeat the enemy.

This kind of thinking comes out of the idea that the Arab world and the Palestinian conflict is a direct result of American "aggression" towards Arabs and also makes the assumption that the Armed forced have a institutional-wide problem with torture and inhumane treatment of prisoners. This is an un-American lie propagated by those who would paint America as an evil aggressor. The Senator must be smoking something!

Related Posts at Latino Issues:
CO Sen. Allard Under Fire for Comments on Crime & Illegal Immigrants
Delphi on the Battle over CO Ref. C: Pro Side Needs More Money To Win

Tags: News and politics, Politics, News, Colorado News