They are all afraid of a woman, and not a big one at that. She is General Janis Karpinski, the general in charge of the Abu Ghraib prison where so many Iraqi prisoners were so badly &uot;tortured.&uot; She is in charge of all US military prisons in Iraqi and that’s where the buck stops, not Rumsfeld as Kennedy and Kerry say or higher yet. Nothing is gained by firing Rumsfeld; better we get rid of a U.S. enemy, Kennedy, a man of integrity. Not going after the guilty female general is because of that nasty word &uot;political correctness.&uot; No calls for her resignation? It is because she is a woman…if she were a man she’d be gone.

She is the same nutty general that let Mohammed Jawad Anafus go when her Brigade Headquarters lost his paperwork. It was his land where we found 15,000 buried Iraqis. She didn’t have brains enough to check with her superiors – she just let him walk. Even the Iraqis were furious, let alone Rumsfeld. At that time General Karpinski evaded responsibility, just as she is doing now but Rumsfeld took the heat, like a man.

I enjoyed reading the report put out by the retired &uot;Swift Boat Veterans for Truth,&uot; with a membership of 200. Twelve of the officers appeared in a photo alongside John Kerry 35 years ago.

They are charging Kerry with &uot;grossly and knowingly distorting the conduct of the American soldiers, marines, sailors, and airmen of that war&uot; and &uot;withholding and/or distorting material facts&uot; about his own Vietnam War conduct. They doubt his ability to serve as Commander-in-Chief.

And the physician who treated Kerry’s first combat wound came forward this month, and recalled the encounter in which Kerry attributed the superficial wound to incoming enemy fire – although other crew members said Kerry likely injured himself with a ricocheted fragment from a mortar round fired into nearby rocks. Dr. Letson remembered the metal fragment as barely having broken the skin and easily removed with forceps. He also remembers he covered the &uot;wound&uot; with a Band-Aid. Based upon that I &uot;earned&uot; at least a three-dozen purple hearts in WW II.

An old man approached the Marine Guard and asked if he could see President Kerry. The Marine politely told the gentleman that he hadn’t been elected. Next day he came back and asked again if he could see President Kerry. The guard figured the gentleman had a problem and kindly repeated that he had not been elected. The old man left but next day he was back again with the same question and the guard was now a bit exasperated and with an irritated voice said, &uot;now look, sir, this is the third time you bothered me with this, why do you do it?&uot; The old gentleman replied, &uot;I just love your answer.&uot;

Rebecca Hagelin said that, &uot;Our country permits Hollywood to put almost anything in a movie and still call it PG-13. We permit television and computers to bring all manner of filth into our homes. We permit school children to be taught that homosexuality is an acceptable lifestyle. We allow Christianity and the teaching of Judea-Christian values to be scrubbed from the public square. We allow our children to be taught how to use condoms in school rather than why to avoid sex. We let these things happen…they don’t happen on their own. While hearings take place to examine the horrific behavior that occurred in a military prison overseas, it’s time to take a cold, hard look at the degradation in our own country…and in our own homes.&uot; How say you?

Former Navy Secretary John Lehman insists our enemy is not terrorism: &uot;Our enemy is violent Islamic Fundamentalism; this is a religious war. This is the emergence of a trans-national enemy driven by religious fervor and fanaticism. We were not prepared for this but we are preparing. We had left ourselves completely vulnerable to a concerted attack.&uot;

Robert Pocklington is a resident of Suffolk and a regular News-Herald columnist. He can be contacted via e-mail: robert.pocklington@suffolknewsherald.com.