Gitmo Gotta Go

Been a while since I blogged 'bout politics, hasn't it? Wellllll then.... (Cracks knuckles with glee.)

This morning, four prisoners attempted suicide at the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba. When guards intervened in the attempted hanging of the fourth prisoner, other prisoners attacked them with "improvised weapons." Now don't get me wrong--in no way am I condoning the idea of suicide as political statement, but isn't that exactly what this feels like? Commander Robert Durand said he had "no idea of any intended message," but when you hear about four suicide attempts on the same day, don't you kinda get the feeling that it's a coordinated effort?

The United Nations Committee on Torture has called on the United States to close down the Guantanamo facility entirely, and I agree. My reasons are largely the same as those cited by the Committee in its report. Right from the start I have vehemently opposed the whole idea of detaining prisoners without any legal rights; it seems completely unAmerican to me, a violation of everything that I think most precious about this nation of ours. It is a particular travesty when U.S. citizens are held without rights, as Jose Padilla was. And as this article points out, the Bush administration escaped a judgment on the issue by finally allowing Padilla to enter the justice system just before the Supreme Court considered his case. Once that happened, by a 6-3 vote the Justices ruled the issue was moot.

Yes, I know there's precedent. Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt all committed civil liberties violations during wartime, and as this interesting 2002 article from the New Republic asserts, the Bush administration's abuses were (as of 2002) less egregious. (I wonder if Mr. Rosen would say the same today.) But it doesn't matter: much as I revere FDR in toto, there were things he did that I just can't condone. (Mass Japanese detentions, anyone?) And really, wouldn't we as a society like to think that we're improving to the point that we don't make those same mistakes over and over again? Wouldn't that be nice?

Military tribunals for foreign nationals suspected of terrorist involvement? Fine, I have no problem with that. But there have been too many mistakes to just allow the government to lock up whomever it wants. And if the person suspected as a terrorist is an American citizen, then he/she deserves full access to the American justice system. Period, end of sentence. Anything different makes us, and there's no other way to say it, just as bad as the people we're fighting against.