Dear Senator Durbin

This is a letter to Senator Durbin from Commander Paul Galanti who was a genuine prisoner of war for seven years in North Vietnam. Paul Galanti was in uniform, serving the United States when he was captured, yet the treatment he experienced from his captors was far, far worse than anything happening to the detainees at Guantanamo, who are not POWs. They wear no uniforms, they are members of no army and they fight for no country. They are detained to prevent them and their cohorts from murdering innocent American civilians. Where were the Senator Durbins of the U.S. Senate when our POWs were being brutalized in Vietnam? Whose side were they on then, and whose side are they on now?

Letter to Senator Durbin:
"As one who was held in a North Vietnamese Prison for nearly seven years and whose definition of torture and bad treatment is somewhat at variance with yours, I deplore your senseless comments about alleged "barbaric treatment" at our terrorist detention facility at Guantanamo.

"Your remarks comparing Guantanamo to the regimes of Stalin, Hitler and Pol Pot are outrageous. I tried to think of why a rational human being could make such an outlandish statement but I keep coming up short. I thought I'd seen it all when Howard Dean performed his infamous scream in Iowa but your diatribe yesterday eclipsed Dean's moment of Hannibal Lecter lunacy. And your moment of pique will be infinitely more damaging to members of our Armed Forces serving in harm's way.

"I noted, when searching for your contact information, that the first item Google came up with was al Jazeera's joy at your comments. You, sir, for having aided and abetted the enemy in time of war, have been relegated in my mind to the status of Jane Fonda and your colleague, John Kerry as contemptible traitors.

"I hope not too many of our valiant members of the Armed Forces have to suffer for your stupid comments. Shame on you.

"This is copied to to the Chicago Tribune's Letters Editor. It is blindcopied to my family members from Illinois and to several military blog groups to which I subscribe.

"Sincerely,
Paul E. Galanti
Commander, U.S. Navy (Ret.)
Richmond, VA
pgalanti@comcast.net
http://www.nampows.org/pgbio.html"