Dick Durbin, American?

Senator Durbin,

Your recent comments, and your follow-up on them, is the most offensive rhetoric I've heard in my fairly long life. You have made statements over past two days that are clearly both anti-military and anti-American.

To oppose Gitmo, the war, etc. is one thing. To compare a detention facility where the Red Cross, the press and any - repeat ANY - member of Congress has full access to the Soviet system of gulags where millions died is an outrage of the first order. But just so we didn't misunderstand, thank you for throwing in the Nazi concentration camps and Pol Pot. (Did John Kerry contribute him to your efforts?)

Lets see, upwards of 10 million tortured and starved to death in the Gulags. Another 7 million shot, gassed and otherwise murdered in Nazi camps. Pol Pot was good for another 2.5 million or so. Those people were, for the most part, civilians who required "reeducation" or were just "undesireable" like the Jews and gypsies and homosexuals in Germany. Gitmo is currently populated by less than 750 people who were picked up on battlefields, bearing arms, conducting military operations against US and other coalation forces, wearing no uniform which would accord them protection according to the Geneva conventions. They are currently being fed a diet that is better than the MRE's our military eats in Iraq. They receive regular medical care that would be the envy of every Canadian or British citizen when compared to their countries nationalized systems, they are provided the necessary accoutrements for the practice of their religion, Korans and prayer rugs. They are provided Imams. They are shown the direction toward Mecca so that when they pray they are facing in the correct direction. They are watched over by US military guards who have several pages of directions detailing the proprer handling of their religious articles and should one of our people break a rule - even inadvertantly - they (the military guard) are punished.

So far, I know of no deaths of detainees at Gitmo. I am aware of charges of torture, although I really believe that the definition of "torture" has been dumbed down to the point of silliness by the NYT, etal. Somehow I don't think loud rap music or having a woman "invade your personal space" or any of the other "outrages" I've heard about recently compares to the prisoners in the REAL gulags who would stuff their ears with stale bread at night to block out the screams of other prisoners being questioned.

I doubt you've gotten to here, so I won't waste my time calling for your resignation. You wouldn't anyway. Your ego won't allow it. I will mention that you are not fit to dust the sand off the boots of our Marines. You aren't fit to speak about "supporting the troops". You aren't fit to be called an American. You are shameful.

Michael Becker
proud father of a US Marine vet, the best man we know and 10,000 times the man you are...