[Vision2020] [Bulk] Re: GITMO Detainees Can Challenge Detention

[Chasuk]

On Sat, Jun 14, 2008 at 22:07, Paul Rumelhart <godshatter at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Many of these detainees were caught as part of a bounty program set up
> by the US government.  Not the most trustworthy of operations

Exactly.

> Besides, we either follow the rule of law or we're living in a Mad Max
> movie.

Yes!

> We've done more harm in this conflict to ourselves than we have to the
> enemy.  We've lost most of our international respect, we've chipped away
> at the laws that ensure our freedom, and we've strengthened the
> Executive Branch beyond reason.  We'll be living with that long after
> the last detainee dies of old age.

Yes again!

> If we really cared about taking out the terrorists, we would never have
> gone into Iraq.  We'd have tracked down Osama, and anyone else that
> turned up in the ensuing investigation.  We breed more terrorists every
> day we're in Iraq.  With 600 detainees, some percentage of whom are
> undoubtedly innocent people in the wrong place at the wrong time, to
> show for it.

Precisely.  If someone had stolen 6 years of my life, prevented me
from watching my children grow up, from the embrace of my wife, from
the passing of elderly loved ones, and the companionship of friends,
who do you think would be my enemy when I was released?  We are doing
nothing in this war except for manufacturing terrorists.

>  The question I'm interested in is this: do we count
> fighting back at our invasion of Iraq as a "terrorist act"?

Good question.  I'm not sure that I'm ready to ponder the answer.

Thank you, Paul, for expressing succinctly what I would have said myself.

Chas