Gitmo

The suicides at the Guantanamo detention camp have brought some really stupid, outrageous comments from various American officials. One suggested that the suicides were a “publicity stunt”; another siad they were nothing more than “an example of asymmetrical warfare”. What planet are these folks on? The New York Times gets in on the act with this ridiculous article: Prisoners’ Ruse Is Suspected at Guantanamo. Who cares if there was a “ruse”? It is totally irrelevant. It sounds as if the Times is trying to say that nothing is wrong in Gitmo, and those nasty people who committed suicide were underhanded or tricky by employing a “ruse” to deceive their captors. Oh, pity the captors. They are just trying to be so, so civilized, while those horrible captives are so, well, horrible.

Let’s get this straight: Gitmo is an abomination. There are a bunch of really evil people being held there. But that doesn’t mean that America should be running a camp where no one has any rights whatever. The very existence of the camp demeans and defiles everything tht America was supposed to stand for. I say “was” advisedly, becasue clearly Gitmo exposes American exceptionalism as a myth. It is un-patriotic, and un-American to support the continued existence of the camp.

If we “know” what the crimes of the people being held in Gitmo are then we should bring them to trial. Everything else is an appalling contravention of human rights.