GayPatriot

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On GITMO, Once Again, We’re Not Even Discussing Reality

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Similar to the point I made over the weekend about most of the health care debate missing the point, that it should be about individual liberty, not about cost savings or sad-sack stories about people in need (a point, of course, even better made by Mark Steyn in the NRO piece to which I linked), there’s an analagous dissonance when it comes to the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Today we find that the Midwest may be receiving some of the detainees from GITMO, and that’s starting to rile the locals in flyover country. Naturally, folks there (and anywhere they’re given the chance to respond, if asked) don’t care for terrorists living in their midst, even if under “maximum security”. This concern is given even greater weight when we look at what some incarcerated terrorists are trying to do.

But the story becomes even more chilling (and bizarre) when we read that the “Justice Department has identified about 80 detainees who could be charged and prosecuted, either in military or federal criminal courts.”

CHARGED?

For those paying attention, this seems odd. These “detainees” are NOT criminals. They are NOT being held on criminal warrants or accusations of crimes. They are COMBATANTS (illegal, at that) in a war that is currently ongoing. They are not being held at Guantanamo Bay because they are awaiting trial for allegedly committing crimes. They were not “harshly interrogated” to elicit confessions to be used against them in a trial. They are active fighters in a war. War, people, WAR.

Japanese and Germans captured during WWII were not put on trial until AFTER the war, and at that time, it was for war crimes. Those prisoners were not given trials while the war was going on for some sort of crime. They weren’t afforded rights of the accused, because they weren’t being held as accused. They were being detained to keep them off the battle field.

As much as the Left wishes this weren’t a war, they’re wrong. And their confusion over the situation is truly confounding. It’s often said that these people at GITMO “aren’t your petty theives.” They didn’t simply steal a car or even beat someone up. When we argue from that standpoint, we’re conceding the biggest point of all: Not that their supposed “crimes” are more abhorrent than a common crook, but that any supposed “crimes” have anything at all to do with why they’re there.

Sometimes I feel like I’m the crazy one, ya know?

-Nick (ColoradoPatriot, from HQ)

Comments

  1. Japanese and Germans captured during WWII were not put on trial until AFTER the war, and at that time, it was for war crimes.

    So when will this war be over? Who will declare war over, a victory, a success after what objectives are achieved, after a military falls and someone sues for peace? Who is the enemy that can be recognizably be defeated and give that surrender? When will terror be dead enough to declare victory in our “War on Terror?”

    And to help you answer the question, didn’t you post a “Victory in Iraq” (with a beautiful banner) at one point last year? If the Iraq war has been successfully won, as both Bush and you claim with your banners, isn’t it time to release these guys as ex-POWs or prosecute them as criminals?
    Otherwise, will we be holding them until “terror” is no more, as the phrase “War on Terror” would indicate? In other words, forever?

  3. Who will declare war over…

    torrent – it’s YOUR guy who will decide if/when the wars are over.

    The idea of trials is ludicrous. If these guys are tried under civilian trial rules, they’ll walk. See 4th, 5th, and 6th Amendments as well as Miranda and Escobedo.

    I’m proud of my used-to-be Senator Pat Roberts who said not no, but hell no to the idea of keeping these guys in KS. I say move ’em to Martha’s Vineyard.

  4. Torrent:
    We should then shoot these guys for breaking the Conventions on sight then. That is allowed by the Conventions for Illegal Combatants (Any Germans caught in US uniforms were so treated)

  5. That’s the problem, we are violating the detainee’s rights. They have the right to an impromptu court martial. After they are found guilty they have a right to a last cigarette. Then they have a right to stand before a stout wall. Finally, they have a right to a mercy shot in the head if the firing squad muffs the job.

    I say give them their rights!