There is no War in Cuba

"I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.

Thomas Jefferson, whenever I see that, I am tempted to walk seven times round your Monument in a counter-clockwise direction, and I don't care if it is idolatry.

So that is why it saddens me that this nation, the great upholder and protector of freedom and liberty, is in this instance letting everyone down. Remonstrate with the Saudis or Chinese or North Koreans or Burmese or all the other squalid despot regimes about their non-existent legal systems, and they can just turn round and say "Sure, we have imprisonment without trial, just like you do in Gitmo".

I can understand how it started. It was right to invade Afghanistan, to go after the terrorist camps, and in the process get rid of their protectors, the Taliban regime. In doing so a lot of people got scooped up and they needed to be checked out, interrogated, classified, graded as dangerous or innocent or just plain-stupid-went-to-Afghanistan-because-it-was-like-summer-camp-for-religious-wackos. So a prison at the end of nowhere was as good a place as any to do that. But that was four and a half years ago. Time and enough to interrogate and check out and classify and grade. And it's long past "put up or shut up" time. Now is the time to either try them for their crimes, or release them. It's supposed to be only the squalid regimes like Saudi Arabia, where you get locked up for four and a half years without trial. And don't give me that "They are not subject to US law" routine, because that's a cheap and lazy cop-out that merely says "We started this but we don't have a clue how to finish it". Same with the "Enemy combatants" routine - you can't release them at the end of the war because the "War on Terror" will have no defined end. Are you expecting to sit down with Bin Laden in a railway carriage in the French countryside, while he signs an armistice document?

I desperately want the US to stand on the moral high ground and beat countries like Saudi Arabia over the head until they do something about Human Rights and the Rule of Law. But right now, it's not standing on anything, it's standing in something, and it smells real bad. And if world public opinion means anything to it, it should check out what everyone else is saying these days. Even the Government Lawyer of its most faithful ally Tony Blair, the "Poodle's poodle" himself, is now saying...."
TRP

This damn left wing hate America crowd, don't they get it?

I just noticed that this entry has 271 comments, I have not had the time to read any of them yet, but I can imagine my snarky remark is probably inline with what you will find there. Latter when I get time I am going to read it all and see if I'm right...if any of you have the time feel free to let me know.