Bush U-Turn at Gitmo
Well after years of pressure, international criticism, protests, and warnings from all sorts of organizations and individuals, the US has finally started the slow move towards civilization. Pretty soon it will denounce torture. Heck it might even allow fair trials. Although I doubt whether it will rein in its secret police. It took the Supreme Court to get George Bush to act in a civilized manner. He’s done a complete and embarrassing u-turn on Gitmo. The New York Times has the story here: In Big Shift, U.S. to Follow Geneva Treaty for Detainees
I wonder why it took this regime so long to realize that the rule of law is important in civilized countries. More to the point I wonder why it took so long for this violent and pernicious bunch of felons to bow to international standards of decency. The Geneva Convention is international law. It was put in place with the complete support and encouragement of the US. Yet somehow Bush and his wacko cronies tried to paint it as a restriction that was inappropriate for the “war on terrorism”. He and his lunatic buddies tried to tell us that only “softies” like Old Europe needed silly things like the Geneva Conventions: red blooded countries like the Can Do States shouldn’t allow that softie thinking stop them. What an utter degradation of standards!
Bush thinks of himself as above the law, but even he cannot shrug off the weight of international opinion. His uncivilized actions in setting up Gitmo and condoning torture have tarnished forever the name of the US. Bush’s unpatriotic and stupid actions portrayed a country that would compromise its ideals and betray its founding vision in a heartbeat if it thought it could get away with it.
I don’t think that that is the real America. The Supreme Court didn’t either.
What’s still distressing is that there are Republicans in Congress who are rattling the saber and threatening to pass legislation allowing Bush to revert to barbarity. They clearly have no truck with this country’s history.
Let’s hope that they fail. Just like Bush failed to pervert American justice.
