Comments on: Bad Decision No. 1

By: djaces

djaces — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 02:17:53 +0000

I think bringing the boys from Gitmo here would provide a terrific opportunity to reinforce the positive trend in the world’s perception of us, which started with our embrace of the One. To demonstrate that we’re really not the kind of people to hold on to a grudge, I suggest that before the boys board the plane for the States we present them with a parting gift from the American people, a nice new pair of Converse sneakers. It might be difficult to find a volunteer to pilot the flight, but with all the advances in drone technology, we ought to be able to surmount that problem.

By: Consul-At-Arms

Consul-At-Arms — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 05:09:28 +0000

Based on what the outgoing administration went through on this issue, I expect that Congress is going to have to legislate this into action, and that there might be SCOTUS involvement as well.

In one sense it’s like opening another front in the war on terror, only in this one I don’t see the upside, any way that we’re going to be able to win this particular lawfare front.

While anyone with even passing familiarity with the laws of war will already know, most detainees don’t come even close to qualifying for prisoner of war status. What they come closest to qualifying for is simply war criminals. So treating them as if they deserved the protections of prisoners of war was a blessing for them.

Moving all these folks into the United States…. how do we ever get them to leave? Why take on this logistical nightmare. If civilian federal trials are what’s needed, then authorize that they take place in Guantanamo.

I’ve quoted you and linked to you here: http://consul-at-arms.blogspot.com/2008/11/re-bad-decision-no-1.html

By: Michael Lonie

Michael Lonie — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 03:21:25 +0000

This change would essentially be lawfare directed by or own government against us. The military solution is simple. From now on, take no prisoners.

The idea of treating terrorism as a criminal justice problem is fatuous. It led to 9/11. I leaves the Israelis wih thousands of prisoners and their enemies then kidnap Israelis to hold as hostages to exchange one or two dead Jews for hundreds of live, blood-soaked Arab murderers.

By: RebeccaH

RebeccaH — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 22:55:34 +0000

Excuse me? The Guantanamo detainees are enemy combatants under the military rule of law. Their status was determined by the beloved-of-pacifists Geneva Convention, the latest amendment of which was agreed upon in 2005.

Whatever the nebulous desires of so-called “world-citizens”, sovereign nations still have the right, under this treaty, to hold enemy combatants responsible for their actions, without virtue of trial or review, [b]until the end of armed conflict[/b]. At that point, their actions may be reviewed by a fair and just international court, as was done in Nuremburg, and has, regrettably, never been done in Cambodia or Vietnam… yet.

What we, as inheritors of the concept of “Sovereign Nations of the Western Enlightenment” have to uphold above all, is the right of self-defense. That includes defense of all our values and principles, not just our borders and nationalities. It requires a firm rejection of cultural equivalency. If we can’t make this choice, we are lost.