Once we begin coming to terms with the real history of this country and the influences that shape it, we will have a better sense of the difficulties faced by Barack Obama, and the tremendous pressures upon him to continue serving those narrow interests, rather than the public good.
Land of the Safe and Home of the Cruel
Under the partial but real accommodation of the former vice president by President Obama lies the drama of a collective loss of faith in justice. We are in danger of losing track of the distinction between a suspect and a terrorist. It has already been lost by Harry Reid, who, in a speech of abject capitulation, spoke of the suspects in Guantanamo simply as terrorists. There are, at present, two million prisoners in the United States. A public error of these proportions sets us on the path to forgetting the difference between a suspect and a criminal, and between an accusation and a proof, and forgetting the axiom that a man is innocent until he is proven guilty.
Dick Cheney, the Monster That Can't Be Silenced
If Wes Craven decided to make a horror movie out of the last year of U.S. politics, he would definitely cast Dick Cheney as the monster that can't be silenced. The former vice president is Leatherface, Jason, and Freddie Krueger all rolled into one: lawless, methodical, and unpredictable with firearms. He's had more sequels than Chucky: White House chief of staff, House minority whip, secretary of defense, CEO of Halliburton, vice president, and now rogue pundit.Expect more down-and-dirty fighting from Dick Cheney. This is one nightmare from which we haven't quite woken up.
I would posit that David Bromwich is confused; he is confusing a regular criminal with a P.O.W.
A P.O.W. is NOT entitled to the same routine as a common criminal is. They are entitled to fair and humane as possible under the exigencies of war treatment and repatriation at the cessation of hostilities and nothing more.
Under the auspices of the same Geneva Convention protocalls that a lot of Progressives like to bleat that we aren't according to these prisoners (although we ARE); we were entirely within the our rights under the Conventions to summarily execute these prisoners upon capture, that we didn't do so is a measure of our mercy.
Just WHEN will your political ilk realize that these people do NOT fall under our Constitution and do not merit anything but treatment equal to the standards of their own homelands/culture, and that we treat them much better than their own compatriots ever would under the same circumstances?
These are not common criminals, they are dedicated fighters in a war to destroy everything you and I hold dear.
Posted by: Delftsman3 at May 27, 2009 12:33 PMDelftsman, it's been ages! Still a rightwinger after all these years I see. Last time you posted here you were spreading the "Swiftboat" meme against John Kerry. Now you're arguing Cheney's case, like a good foot soldier. Alas, some things never change.
Unfortunately, you are once again repeating right-wing talking points when you call the detainees at Guantanamo "POWs." Al Qaeda is a criminal organization, they are not a uniformed army fighting for a state, and those held at Guantanamo are merely -alleged- to be terrorists. Until they're proven guilty they ought to be presumed innocent.
I was happy to see President Obama change the game last week when he expanded the FBI's role in counter-terrorism operations.
"The approach effectively reverses a mainstay of the Bush administration's war on terrorism, in which global counter-terrorism was treated primarily as an intelligence and military problem, not a law enforcement one. That policy led to the establishment of the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; harsh interrogations; and detentions without trials."
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-fbi28-2009may28,0,694540.story
To undermine our whole system of justice because 17 men with box-cutters attacked us on 9/11 is to destroy "everything we hold dear" and give terrorists the victory over us.
"Beware in fighting monsters that you don't become one" - Nietzsche
Cheers.
Posted by: Diana at May 30, 2009 04:33 PM