Kim at Musing Minds posts about an incident that happened on Fox News on June 30th that has her wondering about the Republican pundit, former congressman, John Leboutillier.

Leboutillier, not his counterpart, Democrat strategist, Kirsten Powers had this to say when questioned about whether the Geneva Convention should be applied to the detainees at Gitmo……

Well Mike, you know, my view on it is, I think we all believe in a system of how to charge criminals - and these are criminals. And there’s something un-American about taking people, not trying them and just locking them up wherever. Now the worry I have is - next week, next month, next year - what if some American soldiers are taken - by some terrorist group - or some country - and they don’t charge them, they don’t give them back, they just say. “Ah, we’re keeping them for as long as we want.” We have lost our ability to say, “you’re wrong for doing this.”

Criminals kill, steal, embezzle and rape for their own sick, stupid reasons, Mr. Leboutillier. They sometimes run for congress and are elected Senators from Massachusetts or New York.

Terrorists are different. They steal, kill and destroy out of a fanatical loyalty to a belief or cause. The detainees at Gitmo are dangerous, evil terrorists who cannot be rehabilitated and in most cases are not even wanted back in their home countries.

Then there’s the New York Times. There’s no doubt that with their leaks they’ve helped the terrorists so this news organization straddles the abyss between criminal and terrorist. How does Bill Keller sleep at night? Dennis Lormel at the Counterterrorism Blog explains why Keller’s nights ought to be filled with nightmares.

Austin Bay expands on the nightmarish quality of the terrorists who are benefitting from the editors of the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times’ careless disregard of our national security.

We need fierce and swift responses to terrorism in Iraq, Afghanistan, Bombay, India, or wherever evil acts of terror are perpetrated.

I’m hoping Mr. Leboutillier was just having a bad day, or indigestion or was afraid that Mz. Powers was going to hurt him and (please God) not thinking of running for congress again. We don’t need that kind of thinking in the halls of congress.

Terrorists don’t respect nice. Osama bin Laden witnessed Bill Clinton’s withdrawal from Somalia and saw a paper tiger. Islamic Jihadists don’t even think in modern western terms but medieval ways. Ralph Peters understands this and has a very strong piece recommending that we kill the terrorists on the battlefield.

Ravaged societies crave and need strict order. Soft policies may appear to work in the short term, but they fail overwhelmingly in the longer term. Wherever we’ve tried sweetness and light in Iraq, it has only worked as long as our troops were present - after which the terrorists returned and slaughtered the beneficiaries of our good intentions. If you wish to defend the many, you must be willing to kill the few.

For now, we’re stuck with a situation in which the hardcore terrorists in Guantanamo are “innocent victims” even to our fair-weather allies. In Iraq, our troops capture bomb-makers only to learn they’ve been dumped back on the block.

It is not humane to spare fanatical murderers. It is not humane to play into our enemy’s hands. And it is not humane to endanger our troops out of political correctness.

Instead of worrying over trumped-up atrocities in Iraq (the media give credence to any claim made by terrorists), we should stop apologizing and take a stand. That means firm rules for the battlefield, not Gumby-speak intended to please critics who’ll never be satisfied by anything America does.

The ultimate act of humanity in the War on Terror is to win. To do so, we must kill our enemies wherever we encounter them. He who commits an act of terror forfeits every right he once possessed.

I daresay that most of the military in Iraq would also agree.

A Golden Hammer Award to Kim at Musing Minds and to Ralph Peters.