Does it come as a surprise that there are European officials now demanding punishment for American military personnel who have engaged in torture?

From what I have learned, the drumbeat against U.S. "torturers" is reaching a crescendo.  At the heart of the matter is the morality of those Soldiers and Sailors who wear U.S. uniforms.  I contend that this search for evildoers is greatly misplaced.  The record suggests that the U.S. is quite capable of identifying and punishing abusive military personnel.  Most of us have heard of Abu Ghraib, the prison scandal.  However, not nearly as many have heard that seven soldiers received courts martial and some will serve 10 years in federal prison.

The leading spear-carrier in the effort to incarcerate U.S. troopers is Dick Marty, a federal Senator from Switzerland.  He is the chief anti-torture investigator for the Council of Europe who is after American scalps wherever he can find them.  One can only guess where Marty would place U.S. crimes in the grand scheme of global torture.  Maybe that doesn't even matter.  Could it be possible that he just dislikes Americans?

Marty is obsessed with U.S. behavior at the expense of nefarious conduct by officials from other nations. Torture has been around a long time and we, Almighty America, are pikers when it comes to such immorality. The Senator may wish to look at closer to home.  Foreign Policy Magazine recently ranked the countries it considered to be the worst places to be a terrorist.  Presumably those nations that rank high have demonstrated their torture and brutality to would-be fanatics.  Senator Marty will be disappointed to learn that the U.S. didn't even make honorable mention in Foreign Policy's list. 

In fact, the French, known more for wine and cheese than military might, edged Jordan for number one in the world. The French are re-inventing what it means to fight stateless enemies in this new world.  Central to this thrust is the use of torture to deter those who would attack its interests.  They are sending the message that terror won't be easily spread to French targets.  It is evident terrorists or people that behave like them will not enjoy any civil liberties in France.  In the eyes of the French, terrorists are guilty until proven innocent.  Torture?  The French use all the tricks of the trade according to Foreign Policy. Senator Marty doesn't appear interested.

While we may lack details and documentation, we can be certain that France isn't very nice to suspects. What is happening in France has its roots in the 1954-1962 in fighting Algeria in its war for independence.  It is obvious that the French don't mind bending the rules against those who break them with total disregard for civility.

If Senator Marty cares about torture, he might want to take a look at Vietnam.  For forty years, Vietnamese generals have gone to bed each night with American blood underneath their fingernails.  As a Marine in Vietnam, I knew that if captured, I would be tortured and killed because I was not an officer. There were 661 U.S. military prisoners-of-war returned after the war, and all but a hand full of these were officers. By contrast, more than 50,000 of the 58,000 killed in the war were from the enlisted ranks.  There are no statistics, but hundreds if not thousands of enlisted personnel must have been captured, tortured, and murdered by North Vietnam. I saw this evil firsthand. My platoon once found a missing Marine that had been decapitated and cut up and stacked like firewood. Inch-long maggots poured out the man's flesh. Gosh, I wonder how these abuses, crimes that often occurred but were rarely disclosed, would compare with our "sins" in Iraq or Afghanistan.

In Vietnam, American military personnel were subjected to at least 26 courts martial for prisoner abuse. There are zero accounts of charity by the NVA to captured U.S. Soldiers.  A few weeks after finding the decapitated Marine, I had the pleasure of chasing and tackling a North Vietnamese Army soldier who had been wounded in one of our ambushes.  As I fought to subdue this man, I had a K-bar knife in my right hand.  I could have slit his throat, which is exactly what I wanted to do.  However, I resisted the temptation.  We aren't a perfect people, but most Americans have a God-given moral compass that helps us sort out right from wrong.

Let me stand and denounce Senator Marty.  If his true goal is to punish truly egregious torture, he is looking in the wrong place.  Our military personnel, with few exceptions, are highly disciplined and resist the desire to "get even" by abusing prisoners.

The concept of torture in war is as old as man throwing rocks at other people to gain advantage in a dispute.  I wish that Prehistoric Man had taken a different course.  Perhaps then the world would then be perfect.  Now, wouldn't that be nice?