Iraq Camp Bucca

CNN aired an exclusive this morning on an Iraq detention camp named Bucca where reportedly up to 19,000 prisoners have been held - some for as long as 3 years.

General Douglas Stone explained to us that he is using counter-insurgency techniques to help rehabilitate and return thousands of prisoners back into Iraq society as a possible positive force for the American point of view, but the General also explained that many of the fighters including the so called Al Qaeda in Iraq actually took the job of fighting against the Americans for money to help support their families and with the full support and blessing of their families.

I don't know about you, but all of this seems very frightening. Almost 20,000 Iraqis being held in a prison camp and only released when they have been rehabiliated to our way of thinking?

Hmmm...if I'm in a prison camp for as long as 3 years I think I would just about say or do anything to convince my captors I was no longer a threat to them and that I was safe to be released.

This is what passes for converting hearts and minds in the so called war against terrorism? Is it just me or does anyone else find this abusive and hypocritical on the part of the United States?

In my opinion either we're in a war or we're not, and if we're in a war then these types of activities are at best a distraction. Of course, we're really not a in war in the traditional sense, we're attempting to educate and convert an entire country to the American way of living and thinking.

Are we really prepared to continue to put out 7 billion dollars per month of our citizen's tax money for an entire generation of 50 years or more to do this which is what it would take? And at what expense to our own country's needs in education, social security, jobs, and our economy?