The random views of Scott KissingerI am thoroughly disgusted by the US Government’s blatant and continued disregard for human rights in connection with the “war” on terror. The link below is but the latest example. Either we believe in them or we don’t. The excuses about Guantanamo or Bagram being outside the jurisdiction of this law or that treaty are lame and pathetic.
In addition to not doing what is right, every day we cede more moral high ground to those who are in fact our enemies. This can have nothing but bad long-term consequences.
President Cheney…er, Bush…may have started this, but Obama is fast pulling close in the blame department by perpetuating the practices. He needs to stand up and say clearly and directly that what we are doing is wrong, is against everything that America stands for, and that he is putting an end to it immediately. Not Guantanamo-style immediately, but immediately.
To the protestations that “this is more complicated than you think” or “these are dangerous men”, well, you should have thought about that before you started this mess. These are not new laws or moral principles that have been dumped on you in the middle of the conflict. They have been around for hundreds of years and you knew the rules going in. That you chose to ignore them and now find yourself in a dilemma is no one’s fault but your own. Instead of devoting your best legal minds (a chilling thought in itself) to developing clever legal arguments to flout the rules, you should have focused those minds on compliance instead. The time is past. Fix it.
(Source: The New York Times)
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