Blood On Their Hands?

Patrick Buchanan, who has been no friend of George Bush or the Iraq War, speaks out against John Kerry for his support of Mary McCarthy, particularly when he said, "I'm glad she told the truth...there are larger issues here."

You don't have to be a genius to recognize that the "larger issue" to which Kerry is referring is making the Bush Administration look bad. Now for the potential unintended consequences.

Even if McCarthy never actually specifically said that Americans were torturing prisoners in "secret prisons" in Europe, that was clearly the implication. We supposedly used these prisons so that we could "outsource" harsh treatment of prisoners to other countries. Whether it's true or not, this high profile media story might very likely fuel new terrorists who believe it's fair to kill Americans in retaliation for this "torture" within our "secret prisons."

For example, this exact situation happened with the Abu Ghraib scandal. Shahawar Matin Siraj, a Brooklyn man, was so angry with Abu Ghraib that he was hatching a terrorist plot to kill Americans here in the U.S. in retaliation before he was recently arrested. While I still blame the terrorist rather than the U.S. media for potential acts of terrorism, the media clearly didn't help when they covered Abu Ghraib on the front pages of the news for 46 straight days. Additionally, it's even worse to incite these actions if the story is untrue, which is what the EU said about our secret prisons last week.

So let's take the Left-wing rationale when they claim that the Iraq War is actually fuelling terrorism rather than helping stop it. By that reasoning, Mary McCarthy, John Kerry, the Washington Post and the NY Times will have blood on their hands from their recent statements and actions.