What to Do?

I'm not surprised at all at Matt’s stance on this, because I agree.

WASHINGTON — The latest chapter in the legal history of torture is being written by American pilots who were beaten and abused by Iraqis during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. And it has taken a strange twist.

The Bush administration is fighting the former prisoners of war [POWs] in court, trying to prevent them from collecting nearly $1 billion from Iraq that a federal judge awarded them as compensation for their torture at the hands of Saddam Hussein's regime.

The rationale: Today's Iraqis are good guys, and they need the money.

Wouldn't it make more sense for these POWs to sue Saddam Hussein personally? Likely he still has a lot of dough stashed away in Swiss bank accounts from the (ever-broadening) Oil-for-Food scam. However, I'm not sure how that could be done. Likely, neither are the plaintiffs. Perhaps that’s the reason they are going for the easier target--at the behest of their lawyers, no doubt.

I hate disagreeing with my fellow GIs—especially those who have endured infinitely more hardship in a short time than I ever did in my entire life—but many of the newly-liberated Iraqis have had to endure at least as much torment as these POWs.

Will a billion dollars—split evenly and taken off another abused group—make the remembered torment of our honored POWs go away?