Let's shout it to prisoners everywhere: If you're not harmed by an American, your suffering doesn't count

The demands to shut down our Guantanamo lock-up for terrorists have nothing to do with human rights

states Ralph Peters (thanks to Gregory), who is appalled by the lack of sympathy the left feels toward the victims of any regime other than the Bush administration.

They're about punishing America for our power and success. From our ailing domestic left to overseas America haters, no one really cares about the fate of Mustapha the Murderer or Ahmed the Assassin. The lies told about Gitmo are meant to undercut U.S. foreign policy and embarrass America. The … one thing the protests aren't about is human rights. …

The truth is that the terrorists and their defenders have something in common. … It's that neither can be appeased. … You can't negotiate with terrorists. And you cannot reason with ideologues — whether they're Islamist fanatics or pathetic old lefties fishing for a cause to give meaning to squandered lives. Terrorists, French and German neo-Stalinists, and our own democracy-hating intelligentsia aren't interested in facts. …

What should enrage every decent citizen is that the real torturers — from Zimbabwe to China, from Syria to North Korea — get a pass from the political left. If terrorists behead defenseless captives on videotape, it's simply an expression of their culture. But if a handful of U.S. troops play an ugly round of Candid Camera, that's a new gulag. …