By Matt for the TIB Network:
What would cause a freedom loving nation such as the United States to imprison people without a trial? Why should the people of the United States support such an action? And why does it not matter what the rest of the world thinks about the situation. These are the kinds of questions that have been asked of me, and I'm sure that as you read this you are thinking of other questions. I'm going to attempt to answer all of them.How did all this start? Well, to quote the fictional first lady, Abby Bartlett of the West Wing, it all started with Ishmael. But the story doesn't end there. Some will tell you that this particular story starts in 1979 with Iran's taking of the American embassy. For me the story starts with this...
We didn't ask for that. And don't bother telling me this has something to do with American foreign policy. It doesn't. That is the excuse, not the reason. The reason we were attacked was that we aren't them. Plain and simple. We don't think like them. We don't act like them. We don't dress like them. And we don't treat women like they do. That is why they want us dead. Not because we have an air base in Saudi Arabia. Not because we support Israel. They are Islamofascists. And they want to kill all of us.
Where does Gitmo come in to all of this? The detention camp at Gitmo was put together as a place to interogate enemy combatants that are not prisoners of war. Let me break that down for you:
Enemy Combatant: someone who is actively engaging our forces in battle or supporting those who are.There are people who think we should extend prisoner of war rights to these detainees. I am not one of them. Why? Quite simply, had you asked these guys prior to their stay at Gitmo if they were happy about this:
Prisoner of War: The Geneva Conventions has a set number of conditions for what qualifies a detainee as a prisoner of war. With such qualification, the detainee is guarenteed certain rights. NONE of the detainees at Gitmo are prisoners of war because they fail to qualify for such status under the Conventions.
...those guys would have told you that they were ecstatic.
Let's talk about the fact that there haven't been any charges levelled against these upstanding, model citizens of the world. Putting together a legal case against a terrorist is very difficult. Does that mean that these guys are innocent? Nope. In fact, we've released a number of these innocents only to later kill them on the battlefield in Afghanistan. That's right. These guys are so innocent, they went right back to doing what they were doing before they were captured. We were foolish for releasing them.
Secondly, these guys come from the same groups of people who like to do this:
Picture taken from Dr. Rusty Shackleford's, Jawa Report blog and no, it wasn't the worst of the batch.
...to each and every one of us. I ask you, are these guys worth the risk? I don't think so.
Lastly, I remind the reader that the associates of these angelic little saints forced men and women to choose between staying in a doomed, burning building and this:
Originally, I was going to put together an audio file from a documentary on 9/11 of what it sounded like when these people hit the ground. I just can't do it. But if pressed, I will because it is important that we all understand who our enemy is and what they are capable of carrying out.
That's how I justify Gitmo. And I'm amazed that there are Americans who need reminded of these events. It wasn't that long ago.
I close with a quotation of another fictional character, Commander Adama as played by Edward James Olmos, "As of this moment, WE ARE AT WAR!" And we have been for quite some time. It is time we face that reality.
