Guantanamo’s Prisoners of War

Re “A Devil’s Island for Our Times,” Commentary, Dec. 28: It’s either appalling or hysterically absurd to glance at your Op-Ed page and find Robert Scheer, whose modus operandi in political discussion is exactly that of the communists one argued with nearly 60 years ago on a street corner in the Bronx. When a courageous socialist would suggest that Josef Stalin had murdered and tortured millions by 1939, the fathers of a type like Scheer would retort, “Oh yeah? What about the lynchings in the South?” as though those were remotely parallel atrocities by any measure imaginable.

Similarly, one was surprised to see Scheer suddenly recognizing what had been known far and wide for more than 30 years (that Fidel Castro is a murdering despot) and detailing the Cuban horror ... until of course he concluded by saying the American treatment of irregular prisoners of war is even worse! Nazi propaganda leader Joseph Goebbels died with Hitler in Berlin in 1945, but he would have been proud of the Scheer technique of in-your-face, baldfaced and, yes, cynical propaganda.

Jascha Kessler

Santa Monica

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Arrogance and ignorance are the chief ingredients defining the U.S. prisoner abuse scandal in Guantanamo. Arrogance coming from the Bush White House, that openly disdains the rule of law at home and abroad. And yes, ignorance from a multitude of Americans incapable of focusing on world affairs, while faithfully following their favorite “reality” TV programs. The dawning of this new century goes not well for the U.S.A.

Bob Teigan

Simi Valley

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Scheer now suggests we invade Cuba. Oh, not the Castro-run part of the island of which he is a stalwart admirer, but Guantanamo, where he feels the world’s most ruthless terrorists are being treated in a beastly manner. This includes subjecting them to loud music and sleep deprivation in order to obtain information.

This may sound funny, but he goes on to cite reports of torture obtained by such discredited organizations as the American Civil Liberties Union. In disseminating unproven allegations, he stokes the fires of hatred for America abroad, encourages the atrocious brutalities of our enemies and generally adopts the line of Al Jazeera.

Arthur Hansl

Santa Monica

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If my government feels that it must engage in torture to provide security for this nation, I for one would prefer that such practices be stopped and will take my chances with terrorists.

Fred Boon

Rancho Cucamonga