Carter is a student at the School of Law.
By Phillip Carter
By now, many Americans have seen the picture of John Walker
Lindh, naked and supine in a container while being held by U.S.
troops in Afghanistan. Unfortunately, most have leapt to the
conclusion that this photo shows him being treated
improperly. This could not be further from the truth.
First, one need only look at the object he’s lying on
““ a stretcher ““ to see that he was not being
mistreated. Lindh was injured just before his capture in the same
fighting at Mazar-i-Sharif that killed CIA officer Johnny Spann.
Just as most civilians are stripped of their dirty clothes in an
American hospital, so too was Lindh stripped of his clothes by
military physicians. They graciously treated his wounds, as we do
for all enemy prisoners who we capture with injuries.
After treating him, they placed him on a stretcher without his
dirty clothes. Would those claiming mistreatment prefer that these
physicians put his dirty clothes back on, possibly putting Lindh at
risk of an infection?
Second, Lindh’s photo shows that he is under
restraint. Specifically, it appears that cloth restraints bind
his body to the stretcher and his wrists in front of him. It also
appears that he has a catheter to facilitate his urination.
Such restraints are used in every American hospital emergency
room for anyone who is a danger to themselves or others. They
are also used in most neuropsychiatric hospitals for such
patients. These are not shackles; these are not designed to be
painful. They merely immobilize the patient so he cannot hurt his
doctors or himself.
Third, Lindh complains about the food he was given. As a
veteran, I find this to be the most offensive statement by his
attorneys. Lindh feasted on the same food eaten by his captors
““ U.S. military “Meals Ready to Eat,” or
“MRE’s.”Â
These meals are scientifically engineered by the American
military to be the best possible food for our nation’s
warriors. They are full of nutrients, and designed to sustain a
fighting man indefinitely. If Mr. Lindh has any complaint about the
chow, it should be that he did not receive such sustenance from his
former employers, the Taliban.Â
Fourth, Lindh’s attorneys complain about the container he
was incarcerated in. The now-infamous photo does not show this
container’s detail. But I would guess this was the same
container that I used on numerous deployments ““ metal,
sealed, and impervious to wind and weather.Â
Lindh’s captors would have gladly traded a few hours on
the perimeter for a few hours in the container. The Afghan winter
is brutal ““ it would have had a particularly negative effect
on someone like Mr. Lindh, who was malnourished and injured.
The decision to incarcerate him in a container was the best way
to shield him from the elements while avoiding the security issues
of having him in a heated canvas tent.
American warriors do not mistreat their prisoners, no matter how
much they may dislike them. The troops who took Lindh into custody
probably didn’t like him. But they treated him fairly ““
as they would any battlefield prisoner.
When examined properly, the photograph of Lindh proves they
treated him properly. It shows that Lindh received medical
attention, that he was properly restrained, and that he was
sheltered from the elements.
If only Wall St. Journal reporter Daniel Pearl and Navy SEAL
Neil Roberts were treated as well by their captors as
Lindh. They might be alive today.