Monday, July 21, 2008

Tribunals, Combatants, and GITMO

The more I read about this, the foggier it becomes. First, there were hundreds of "dangerous" criminals being kept at GITMO. I believe Donald Rumsfeld referred to them as "the worst of the worst." Now all these years later, the first tribunal is taking place and it's for a chauffeur. An alleged chauffeur of Osama bin Laden? If he was the worst of the worst, wouldn't he have had a better job with bin Laden than chauffeur? That hardly seems to be a position of great honor or power, but he's the guy for the first tribunal since WWII. If I was a holocaust survivor, I'd be offended at this. Well, I'm not a holocaust survivor and I'm still offended. GITMO makes no sense and these tribunals make no sense. Five guys from the Pentagon's choosing are going to listen to the evidence and determine the rest of this man's life. Maybe this guy is somebody of some importance in alQuaida. Maybe this guy does have a bad group of associates, but our country is making this look like some sort of Kangaroo Court. It's even worse than the Iraqi puppet court that convicted Saddam Hussein. At least there, the occupiers tried to make it look like the decision was made by representatives of the people. It obviously takes someone with greater intelligence than the Bush faithful to see the stage was set by giving the power to Hussein's political enemies. For the short duration needed to make Hussein's death appear outside of the hands of the American administration, the puppet government was formed. Clearly they have no power, though, because now, they can't make their liberators leave!
Back to more that makes no sense. To begin with there were hundreds in GITMO, now there are around 200, with our government expecting to level charges against about 80 of the detainees. So where are all these worst of the worst? What's the difference between worst of the worst and combatant? I think, considering my attitude about the way things are going, I should know how our government defines combatant. WordWeb gives a pretty broad definition. A Combatant can be a fighter or can simply be, belligerent. Just how many of us could be considered belligerent at any given time? Since hundreds of former detainees are no longer there, what has happened to them? Did they get released without charges? Are they alive? Did they go back to their countries? If they were so bad, couldn't the administration come up with something against them? Clearly, the charges are difficult to come up with, since it's taken this many years to form a tribunal against a chauffeur. As a matter of fact, it almost seems like a teaser. Are we trying to make someone mad or appease the Bush followers that want those evil terrorists to pay for their crimes. If any of the reports about 9/11 are accurate, then the 19 guys that hijacked and crashed the planes, whoever the were, already died for their crime and it will not bring back one single victim, nor has it made anyone safer.
He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity . . . the Revelation

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