The Hypocrisy of the Anti-War Left (or the Families Whose Sisters are Caught Torturing Iraqis)

Now this gets my dander up in a big way. The family of one Spc. Lynndie England pictured in some of the photographs surrounding the treatment of Iraqi POWs have decided to defend their daughter’s actions:

“It’s ridiculous,” said Destiny Goin, 21, who has lived with England’s extended family since high school and considers herself England’s sister.

“It’s her picture that you see more than anyone else’s, and she really wasn’t involved. She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Now I can understand a willingness to defend a family member. No problems there. But what I do have a problem with is this:

Goin said England and the six soldiers who have been charged are “scapegoats — that’s what they’re being used for.”

England was trained to be a “paper pusher” who helped process prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, said Goin and England’s brother-in-law James Klinestiver. She was in the area where the photos were taken to visit friends in the 372nd who served as guards, the two said.

Goin and Klinestiver said the family is furious with the comments of President Bush, who said he was “disgusted” by the photographs.

“He doesn’t know what these guys are going through,” Klinestiver said. Referring to Bush’s limited National Guard service during the Vietnam War, he added, “How can you make decisions for our military unless you’ve served yourself?”

Now let me get this straight. Your sister is caught torturing Iraqis, grinning behind a human pyramid of POWs and gesticulating towards their genitals with a thumbs-up and a cigarette hanging from a grin on her face, and it reflects on President Bush’s war record?

Of course, what is sad isn’t that this case is being made, but rather that anti-war peacemongers are once again stuffing their foots in their mouths and using this argumentation to prove their point. That point being, they hate the President.

This article just says so much about our culture of dependence, our lack of responsibility, shifting of priorities, and our predisposition for hyperbole and ad hominem argumentation. Disappointing to the point of anger.