I'm sorry, but I can't hold this one in any longer - this genuinely angers me! I apologize in advance if I offend anyone with this blog, but you can consider this statement your warning of potential in-your-face-ness. If you want to know what's got me so steamed, read on...
I recently blogged about the Supreme Court making an originalist turn, but it looks like that may have been short-lived. Last Friday the Supreme Court decided it would hear an appeal from detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay, reversing their earlier decision and surprising everyone (even those representing the terrorists). Not only is this the first time in recent memory that the SC has reversed its decision on whether or not to hear a case, but it's pure folly and a clear departure from the laws of this country. Let me walk you through it.
The people being held at Gitmo are terrorists, pure and simple. These are the worst of the worst, and if any human beings can truly be called evil, these guys win the prize. Most are citizens of countries that are outwardly hostile toward American interests. They are prisoners of war, captured on the battlefield while they're attempting to kill American soldiers; but they are not normal prisoners of war: they hide behind women and children, they blow up churches, schools, and themselves. They wear no uniforms, they do not subscribe to the Geneva Conventions. They proudly behead Americans live on the Internet, and they repeatedly torture -- real, actual torture -- and mutilate their captives until death becomes true mercy.
Naturally, we should give them the constitutional rights of American citizens.
That's the argument of their defenders in the media and the liberal elite, and that's essentially what's happening here. Let's rewind. By not wearing any uniforms and not adhering to the Geneva Conventions, these murderous thugs are thus not legally entitled to the protections of the Geneva Conventions. These guys are likewise not American citizens, and are thus not legally entitled to the rights of American citizens (like legal representation) according to the US Constitution. In the long history of the US military, the standard form of justice for people like them is a military tribunal. Despite those critical (and blatantly obvious) facts, the ACLU and other liberal groups who represent these terrorists have fought tooth and nail to give them the protections of Geneva and the US Constitution, and they've largely succeeded. These terrorists perform the most horrific acts of barbarism that can be conceived by man, and proudly display it for the whole world on the Internet, along with the promise of more to come. Despite that, the ACLU and other liberals maintain they're simply 'misunderstood' and 'mistreated'.
Bull.
There should never have been a doubt that what the US is doing at Guantanamo Bay is absolutely 100% legal. Look at the past - in World War II we rounded up Japanese Americans and put them into camps for doing nothing other than being Japanese. That was wrong. The questions raised about these terrorists in Gitmo are of night and day difference from that.
So what if we make them listen to Britney Spears a little too loud, dunk them in water (which, by the way, is standard training for US Navy personnel), or never give them a peaceful night of rest? These guys would just as soon cut your fingers off as look at you, and we're supposed to feel sorry for them for being tired? Get real! Keep in mind that the mental exhaustion incurred from long-term discomfort -- and that's truly all it is -- has given us some of the best intelligence of the War on Terror, allowing us to bag some of the major ringleaders of al Qaeda, and we're supposed to stop that to avoid offending their sensibilities? In what world does that make any kind of sense??
Back in June of 2005, Duncan Hunter (a current Republican presidential candidate) visited Gitmo. According to him, here's one of the horrible things these terrorists had to struggle through: "I sat down yesterday with the menu from Guantanamo so the average American can understand how we're brutalizing people at Guantanamo and I've got it right here. They're going to be having orange glazed chicken, fresh fruit Group A, steamed peas and mushrooms, rice pilaf, another form of torture for the hijackers. We treat them very well. If you go back to Sunday, it looks like it's lemon baked fish as an entrée". In addition, when these terrorists arrive they are given their own copy of the Koran and a prayer rug (which YOU pay for), told which wall of their cell faces East, and are given silent times to pray every day. They also tend to gain weight while in US custody since we feed them so well and give them high-quality health care. Hunter goes on to say that the rations given to US troops are considered a form of abuse by the Armed Services Committee! So, what you've got is terrorists being treated better than our own American soldiers, and yet it's our own soldiers that are being accused of torture!
The Washington Post ran a story around the same time about the alleged 'Koran abuse' that American soldiers were supposedly performing, including flushing pages of a Koran down the toilet. The ensuing riots by Muslims around the world left 16 people dead, but after further investigation, it turns out that they found very little that wasn't simply an unsubstantiated allegation. By the way, terrorists are trained to make such accusations when they're captured because they know the ACLU and the media will come to their defense. Hm, I bet you didn't hear that in the mainstream media, did you?
To be fair, the photos from the infamous Abu Graib scandal were clearly inappropriate, and I'm sure there have been a few other incidents of legitimate prisoner abuse. But, the few individuals responsible for those lapses of judgment have been tried and punished. Now, let's be honest - were those humiliating photos really on a par with cutting off someone's head? Dragging someone's body through the streets behind a car? Slicing off body parts? These are all acts that the terrorists have proudly committed against both American soldiers and civilians, and will continue to do so until they're stopped.
Who's guilty of torture? The terrorists, not us. So why are we the ones being accused?
The Supreme Court's decision to hear the appeals from these detainees is a clear signal that they're giving these terrorists the rights of American citizens, and that is absolutely, unconscionably WRONG. It ridicules the sacrifices of our American troops, who are fighting and dying to protect the rights of American citizens to grant those same rights to the dregs of human existence. My only hope is that the Supreme Court is hearing these appeals so they can make a final ruling that they are unconstitutional and will not be heard ever again.
If that doesn't happen, that creepy noise we'll hear is the sound of hysterical laughter coming from radical jihadists all over the world as they come to kill us while being protected by our own Constitution.
There's my two (angry) cents.
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