Capturing Daily Life
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Candidate Insider
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Travis Air Force Base, Military
Display Class, Intelligence
Handle Halabi Spy Case Perfectly
September 29, 2004 (Wednesday)
This is one I've had opinions on for months,
but kept quiet for several reasons.
One reason is that my daughter is
an Airman at Travis and it behooves me,
as a parent, not to interfere
with her career.
Another reason is that I respected
the integrity and intelligence
of the officers handling the situation and,
as I read between and behind the lines
of the newspaper coverage of the case,
I sensed that the system was working
properly and fairly.
Yet it is because I am a parent
of a Travis Airman that my "take"
on the situation (combination of
impressions, intuition and judgement),
is very likely to be much better than
that of the general public.
Also, I have been in all three branches
of the military: Air Force, Army, and Navy,
and I have worked with Marines I respected,
liked, and considered friends.
Everyone involved had a valid point
of view to express and, above all,
I kept in mind that we're at war,
and every single military member involved
in that case was part of one team,
enduring danger, difficulty
and great stress
because we asked them to.
The first impression I had was that Halabi
was a young person of late teens and twenties
who, like most enlistees,
joined for the benefits of a better life,
including the steady job, training,
work experience, horizon-expanding
maturing experience, and GI Bill.
Now, I was on an aircraft carrier
and we had a contingent of Marines
whose primary job was to maintain a brig.
In other words, their job was to
imprison wayward sailors.
I befriended one of the Marines
who was taking a college class with me
that was being offered on the ship.
He took me down to the Marine quarters,
one day, where they maintained the brig.
And, of course, I always saw the Marines
escorting the prisoners through the chow line.
It was amazing to see the discipline
of the prisoners as they took baby steps
sideways and were ramrod straight,
looking forward with concentration.
The intensity level was much, much, much
greater than the intensity level
of the sailors. And, I'm certain
that the intensity level in the Cuba
detainment center was much, much greater
still.
Into that you throw a well-intentioned kid
working a 9 to 5 supply job at Travis.
They work hard at Travis, don't get
me wrong. But their lives are much
more balanced and "normal" than
at a high-pressure, high-profile
detainment center like the one in Cuba.
So this Airman goes from shopping malls,
and weekend parties, and marriage plans,
and regular calls home to proud parents,
and collegial work relations as a
supply clerk, into perhaps the most
intense military duty he could experience,
next to front line combat.
He naturally feels compassion
for the foreigners who speak his language
and share his culture and who surely
view him as a mental and emotional oasis
in the scorching environment of Marines
and other top-notch, gung-ho warriors,
and the prisoners use every trick and
technique to pull on Halabi's heartstrings.
Meanwhile, these Marines and warriors
are tightly bonded to one another,
and an Air Force Airman would feel
a bit of an outsider under even
the best of conditions. And their
instincts and training tell them
not to trust the Muslim, middle eastern
enemy who has attacked us, and Halabi
is a practicing Muslim!
In short, the military needed Halabi's
language skills, but they almost certainly
failed to give him the intense
psychological and emotional training
he would need for that environment.
And the guards needed training, too,
to understand what Halabi would likely
be going through.
Apparently, Halabi's infractions
were minor.
Now we need to gaze upon the guards
with compassion and understanding.
They're warriors dealing in an extremely
intense environment with enemy combatants.
Make no mistake about it. Just because
lead wasn't flying at them doesn't mean
there wasn't pressure.
Just in last week's paper I read
that one of the prisoners released
from Guantanamo was killed or captured
last week in Afghanistan,
commanding a group of rebels.
Well, there's one that got away
to fight against their American comrades
again, thanks to pressure from groups
complaining about the prisoners' rights.
No, we mustn't be too critical
of the military personnel at Guantanamo
for over-reacting to Halabi. Those are
exactly the kinds of warriors I would
want around me in combat - quick to jump
at the slightest hint of danger.
How do we address our need for translators
when only native speakers are truly competent
and they're likely to feel compassion
for those who share their language
and culture, even if they're the enemy,
especially if their own fellow American
soldiers don't warm up to them
or even dislike them?
Personally, I think we should end
immigration from the middle east
and hostile, terrorist nations
and have, special, carefully evaluated
protocols for enlistees with
middle eastern backgrounds.
Halabi is no hero, but he deserves
no punishment more than a slap
on the wrist. And some of the
Guantanamo people deserve a slap
on the wrist, but that's all.
What they really need is special
training to deal with translators.
They need to hear this: "We learned
something from the Halabi case,
and we're working on ways
to address it."
I think the commanders at Travis
handled it extremely well
by putting Halabi back to work
and confining him to base
while it all worked out.
They respected the law and the process
and dignity of our brave fellow warriors
in Guantanamo and at the Pentagon.
Don't forget. The Pentagon was attacked
by terrorists three years ago.
Oh ! THAT's right ! I forgot !
You didn't forget.
You bratty history professors at UCD
think they deserved it !
Posted by dscully at 07:77 PM Top of Page
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David Scully
email
davidscully
@hotmail.com
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