Atlantic Community:Global Must Read Article "Perhaps Guantanamo Is Good After All "

Mitch McConnell, Senate Republican leader | March 16, 2009

The decision to shut Guantanamo Bay led to an outcry of joy. ++ What will follow is unknown because “no acceptable alternatives exist.” ++ The issue of unlawful enemy combatants puzzles both law and state. ++ As Guantanamo Bay is a prison where detainees receive humanitarian treatment and whose high security makes escape impossible, Obama should stop wooing Europeans and focus on the safety of Americans. ++ As the deadline nears, one can only hope that Obama will have “another change of heart.”

I like this Article! What's this?

Comments

Wed, Mar 18th 2009, 02:30

Patrick Edwin Moran, Wake Forest University, Platinum Contributor (201)

I like this comment! What's this?

Senator McConnell says Guantanamo is a nice prison, one that is needed for captives taken by the U.S., and that NIMBY rules the homeland. If only those three factors have ever been involved, it is hard to comprehend opposition. In fact, Senator McConnell makes the Guantanamo facilities seem a better abode than a regular U.S. prison.

Guantanamo’s isolation performs several functions: (1) The keepers of the prison can argue that inmates do not have any rights under the Constitution. (2) It is easier to keep outside observers, friends, and family members from visiting. (3) A prison escape would less likely put an Al Qaida member on the loose where American civilians could be endangered.

Attacking another without provocation deservedly incurs a counterattack. Those who initiate an attack on a community can expect that community to take steps to nullify the attack. Those who demonstrate that they are determined and deadly foes ought to expect death and view lifetime imprisonment as an act of mercy. However, “’Vengeance is mine,’ saith the Lord.” The obligation of the state is to deter, and the wisdom of the strategic warrior is to deescalate where possible.

But what is an appropriate response toward the person who lets his/her mind get taken by a charismatic leader. Does the sword of mercy terminate that individual’s life or does it defeat and enlighten in the same process?

What of the innocent people who are mistakenly imprisoned? Ought such individuals to be imprisoned without term and without any means to question the justice of their penalty?

Guantanamo symbolizes a philosophy of life that does not accept the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, that does not extend the principles upon which the various Constitutions were based to aliens, and that regards personal safety more highly than justice and honor.

We could have the best pre-school in the world on the Guantanamo base, and we could have the vilest prison in the capital of any major country. It is not the place but the abuse and the potential for abuse that we must eliminate.