Gitmo Suicides- As. Warfare?
On 'All Things Considered' tonight I found myself, for the first time in a while, not agreeing with the 'liberal' reaction to a current event.
The Gitmo suicides really ARE an act of warfare, albeit sad and desperate. Here are three guys, with absolutely no due process, being held incommunicado, without any charges, forever. Gee, I wonder why they would ever want to die.
I am offended at the call for more 'mental health counseling' for the Gitmo prisoners. Come on....get real. These guys did the only available thing to get world attention to their plight at Gitmo. Doesn't seem like mentally ill behavior to me. Seems like a fairly brave, rational choice by men we have placed in an impossible situation.
I am actually surprised the minions of King George admitted it was an act of Asymmetrical warfare. That comment basically legitimized these suicides, and confirmed these men as martyrs in their homelands.
What we need is a dose of due process. We need to show the world that we treat our prisoners with extra fairness and civility. Our national image is severely tarnished by running what is basically an illegal camp for alleged Al Queda members. We are giving them the perfect argument to win hearts and minds in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other countries.
I don't want us to close Gitmo. I want it to be run as a humane POW camp, and follow either the Geneva Convention OR our federal criminal laws where prisoners get charged, tried, and access to the courts. Give the Red Cross full access. Treat the prisoners humanely. Give them something to live for. That is how we fight back in an 'Asymmetrical defense'.
Locking ANYONE up without due process of law is just wrong, and violates every right generations of Americans have fought and died for. It needs to stop NOW.
The Gitmo suicides really ARE an act of warfare, albeit sad and desperate. Here are three guys, with absolutely no due process, being held incommunicado, without any charges, forever. Gee, I wonder why they would ever want to die.
I am offended at the call for more 'mental health counseling' for the Gitmo prisoners. Come on....get real. These guys did the only available thing to get world attention to their plight at Gitmo. Doesn't seem like mentally ill behavior to me. Seems like a fairly brave, rational choice by men we have placed in an impossible situation.
I am actually surprised the minions of King George admitted it was an act of Asymmetrical warfare. That comment basically legitimized these suicides, and confirmed these men as martyrs in their homelands.
What we need is a dose of due process. We need to show the world that we treat our prisoners with extra fairness and civility. Our national image is severely tarnished by running what is basically an illegal camp for alleged Al Queda members. We are giving them the perfect argument to win hearts and minds in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other countries.
I don't want us to close Gitmo. I want it to be run as a humane POW camp, and follow either the Geneva Convention OR our federal criminal laws where prisoners get charged, tried, and access to the courts. Give the Red Cross full access. Treat the prisoners humanely. Give them something to live for. That is how we fight back in an 'Asymmetrical defense'.
Locking ANYONE up without due process of law is just wrong, and violates every right generations of Americans have fought and died for. It needs to stop NOW.
posted by Mike Grayson @ 11:26 PM
2 Comments:
At 5:31 AM,
Chris said…
I see your point, Mike. Those guys weren't crazy, and their desperate actions were indeed remarkably effective, especially considering that they were basically anonymous detainees in a secretive political prison.
And I absolutely agree with your wish for what the response should be: running Gitmo in a humane and legal way. Hey, better yet: let's run the whole dang country that way; that'd be refreshing.
But I still find appalling the initial and continued (in the media) use of that phrase, "asymmetrical warfare." It was an act of protest, sure; self-inflicted martyrdom, probably; but not warfare.
For one thing, don't acts of warfare at least try to kill some of the "enemy"? These weren't suicide bombings, intended to kill or terrorize.
Also, the Wikipedia entry on asymmetrical warfare gives examples of it like: technological asymmetry (e.g., the use of the longbow at Agincourt), force asymmetry (China at the beginning of the Korean War) and superiority in tactics (use of the phalanx by the Ancient Greeks). Granted, that article is currently in dispute, mainly, it seems, because of the very question of whether terrorism "counts" as asymmetrical warfare. But even then, three suicides in a remote and heavily secured American gulag hardly seem like terrorism to me.
So, I'm being picky about the semantics, but that's the spin. Maybe those guys were terrorists, and maybe they consciously - even bravely - advanced their cause. But I still think it's disgraceful and cowardly for the U.S. Navy Admiral in charge, who's responsible for the safekeeping of the inmates, to respond to them hanging themselves with their own sheets by claiming to be the victim of a wartime attack.
At 7:57 AM,
Mike Grayson said…
If you look at their mission as being to shut down Gitmo, and the only way that can happen is to win the public relations war, or the war for "hearts and minds", it can be thought of as an act of war. I agree that is a stretch...and we are not 'victims'.
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