Letter to Des Moines Register from Congressman Steve King

Washington, D.C.— The Des Moines Register has called my word of choice to describe the abusive acts committed by several soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison “an embarrassment”.  Words and their meaning are the business of newspapers and politicians.  Words are the most effective and versatile means of precisely conveying a thought- so effective and so necessary that we invent a word where no suitable word exists.

Forty two states saw the need to pass a law against the act of “causing physical or mental harm or anxieties which may demean, degrade, or disgrace another person.”  The criminal behavior outlawed by the 42 states lists: causing indecent exposure, embarrassing dress, deprivation of sleep, food, or drink, branding or marking, offensive physical contact, or other forced activity which could adversely affect the mental health or dignity of the person.  All of the listed activities are alleged to have occurred at Abu Ghraib prison and all of the activities mentioned fall under the legal definition of the states that carefully chose one word to describe that activity.  All forty two states listed the crime as “hazing” and prosecute it as hazing.  The question of flippant usage of a word objectionable to opponents of the administration is now closed.

I, like all Americans, deplore the abuse and humiliation of Iraqi prisoners.  I want to see those responsible swiftly punished.  But far, far more important is the urgent need to stop wallowing in self guilt and get on with the task at hand. 

We are in a worldwide war against terrorists who believe they are in a holy war against all “infidels”.  Their preferred targets are Jews, Christians, and capitalists—women and children included and often preferred.  These people hate us because they fear freedom.  We love God, one another, and freedom.  Our differences cannot be reconciled, compromised or ignored.  They are so evil that they will deliberately kill themselves when they try to kill us.  When they do kill us, their brethren dance in the streets and run around with leering faces waving bloody body parts, the body parts of patriotic Americans who have given their lives to give freedom to themselves and their neighbors.  Our enemies, and let’s be clear, our enemies are approximately 10% of the Islamic world, the radical jihadists.  There are two ways to win this war.

One way is to identify them and kill them all.  Their crimes of infamy give some justification to this approach.  The fact is that 10% of 1.2 billion people are too many to kill.  They are scattered all over the world and we don’t have the will to kill them all if we could do so.

Another way is to kill those that can’t be contained any other way and change the culture of death of those who remain.  This means bring them freedom.  Bring them democracy.  Change their focus from hatred and murder to family and freedom.  It can be done.  It is being done in Afghanistan and in Iraq.  It must be done or our children and grandchildren will live and die with our failure.

The alternative is to build a fortress around America’s 290 million people-- like Israel-- where they guard every bus stop, every theater, every restaurant, and every hospital and school and still see our women and babies blown to bits.  This is our future and the future for Americans if we don’t quit wallowing in the obsessive guilt of the despicable perpetrators at Abu Gharib prison.  We could lose this war.  We could lose it in the next 2-3 weeks.  The war will not be lost in Iraq.  It can only be lost here in the United States because of obsession with the prison story and loss of focus on the war at hand. 

I, for one, refuse to allow this nation to define the courageous sacrifice of our military through the magnifying lens of Abu Ghraib.  It must be defined as the heroic sacrifice for freedom that it is.  Abu Ghraib was not a reflection of American society.  300,000 Americans who served honorably there are a reflection of our great nation.  We were right to go there; even John Kerry recognizes that we are right to stay and give them freedom. 

Iraqi freedom means freedom for the other Arab league nations.  A free Arab world means a far more peaceful world.  Can anyone name three on-going conflicts in the world that do not involve jihadists?  When the Berlin wall came down, freedom echoed all the way across eastern Europe and across Asia to the Pacific Ocean.  That same kind of historical miracle can happen in the Arab world, too.  Like President Bush, I refuse to believe that anyone, because of their race or ethnicity, can’t handle the responsibility of freedom.  “Freedom is the right of every person and the future of every nation”…….so is peace one day, I pray.

Sincerely,

Steve King

Member of Congress (IA-5)