As a female Major with 21 years of total service in the National Guard and Army Reserve, I am thoroughly disgusted about the pictures coming from Iraq regarding the treatment of the Iraqi prisoners. I am disgusted and angry at the whiny, cowardly liberals who feel so sorry for the Iraqi prisoners who shoot our soldiers, bomb our convoys, kill and mutilate civilian contractors, blow up innocent Iraqi civilians in marketplaces; and lob mortar rounds at the U.S. bases to kill America’s finest every day. Many of these so-called “Americans” had no sympathy either when military personnel were being killed in attacks overseas when the draft-dodger Clinton was in office and did nothing. Where was the outrage when the USS Cole was attacked? There was no outcry like this. Only when we had an attack on civilians here in the United States was there any response and people have seemingly forgotten about that already. It’s apparent that military lives don’t count to most Americans. They’re not really Americans in my eyes. It’s disgusting. I’d like for them to take their flags and their phony patriotism and move somewhere else – and take that traitorous (expletive deleted by author) Jane Fonda with you, too. France, Germany or Spain would be a nice place for the appeasers and apologists. I do not believe that the prisoners should be murdered, sexually assaulted, tortured or maimed. However, I am quite satisfied that any tactics involved in intimidating or humiliating prisoners to gain information that can stop terrorist acts are quite justified and acceptable.

My response to the Iraqi prisoner “scandal” is this – continue to intimidate and humiliate; take the hoods off the prisoners and send pictures to the media so they can be humiliated in front of the whole world; let the female soldiers run the entire prison system (since the pictures show they’re doing a fine job); and let me hold the leash with Bin Laden on the end of it when we track his cowardly (expletive deleted by author) down. I want the Arab killers to be afraid to face American female soldiers now.

I know it’s a vain hope, but I’d like to see a huge outcry when those soldiers are made PC scapegoats and court-martialed. The person who should suffer the consequences of the problems in Iraq is Donald Rumsfeld and not because of the prison “scandal”. The real scandal is that he has misled everyone on the readiness of the U.S. military since President Bush selected him as Secretary of Defense. I have personally seen the degradation of the military over 21 years and it has now come to a critical point. Rumsfeld continually insisted that the Active Duty military did not need to be increased. However, these major military campaigns have left us with virtually no Reserve forces left to call up. The Reserve units that remain in the U.S. have been cannibalized to fill the units that are gone. We have a hollow force left and the situation is getting worse. Bush should have replaced Rumsfeld several years ago.

There’s one other thing I’d like to emphasize to the majority of people who have never served in the military. Anyone who thinks that George Bush was AWOL because he didn’t attend drills for most of one year of his NG service is a total ignoramus. It is typical in the NG and USAR for soldiers to have periods of time that they are unable to drill due to civilian job or personal conflicts. If not for that, most Reservists would have to get out of the service and there would be no one there to fall back on to protect Americans’ fat, cowardly, lazy behinds. Most of the Reserve retirees have fewer “good” years of service than total years of service. A “good” year means you have enough points from duty to count the year for retirement purposes. I have been in 21 years and have 20 “good” years toward retirement as I missed most of one year due to the birth of my oldest daughter. Again, this is typical. Bush had a “good” year even though he missed drills for several months. Again, people, this is typical. Also, it’s insulting to NG and USAR personnel to call us “draft dodgers” during the Vietnam War. Look at the Vietnam War memorial and you will see thousands of names of NG and USAR personnel who died in Vietnam. NG and USAR personnel have died in every war since each branch of service came into existence. I’m personally insulted that the Vietnam veterans were accused by Bob Kerry of being draft dodgers and that the fine soldiers who served in Vietnam were defamed by him and called murderers and accused of genocide.

By the way, I’m not a Republican. I am a member of the Libertarian Party. I am also an admirer of Jefferson, who gave us all the right to bear arms not for militias, but in order to rebel, if necessary, against a tyrannical government. I also believe it’s past the time for an “American Revolution” in order to change from a government that involuntarily confiscates money in the form of taxes from productive citizens and uses it to buy the votes of non-productive people, thus promoting survival of the least-fit. We also need a change from a government that apologizes to and appeases our enemies to one that takes action, including preemptive, against our enemies - without apology or appeasement. I thought George Bush was on that path, but I’m now reserving judgment. Does anyone else believe it’s time for a massive change in this country? Or are you all too busy wasting your time getting fatter and lazier while watching re-runs of “Friends” and drinking beer? Instead of that, you better starting learning Arabic and reading the Koran because I’m not going to protect you anymore. Personally, I’m going to keep practicing at the range and start buying some leashes.