“President Obama signed several executive orders effecting the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, CIA run secret detention facilities and illegal interrogations.”
Detention camps? Secret CIA facilities? Illegal interrogations? Does that sound like the United States Of America? I’m glad they are being addressed and hopefully corrected but it’s hard to hear just how badly we have handled things.
Let me clear something up before I continue. I am very proud to be an American and a United States’ Veteran. Any person found guilty of terrorism, the 9/11 attacks or illegal activities against a nation should face prosecution and punishment.
I’m not some weak and naïve human rights advocate that just wants some of the most dangerous terrorists in the world to be released. (I’m not insinuating that human rights advocates are weak or naïve) Many things can be done ‘in the name of peace‘ but, as we can see, you end up with illegal interrogations and prisoners being held for years without trial.
As far as I’m concerned the Bush administration failed on every imaginable level. I’m glad to see George W. Bush out of office and I hope as a country we have learned something from the eight year disaster we endured. I have a lot of hope for President Obama and only time will tell if things will improve but he seems to be on the right track.
My favorite quote from President Obama’s inaugural address:
We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.
Tags: Politics
The thing that bothers me Brian is not what the world thinks of Obama’s new policies but what the terrorists think of it. I see them as seeing them as a sign of weakness, and I am sure they will not follow the same rules. If they have a hostage they will still decapitate them in public and they will do it with glee.
As for the torture; if you capture someone who you feel has knowledge of say another September 11, and you ask him to please tell you what he knows but he refuses, what other recourse do you have?
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I’m with you Sire, if you know a prisoner has information about terrorist activity or anything else as important as that then I’d do whatever it took too. But whether a prisoner of the military/CIA or a local police suspect we can’t allow legal exception to official policy.
Here in the US several years back you may remember the big news about senators and congress members that were blatantly writing bad checks and not paying debt. These were people with plenty of money but had too much power and knew they could get away with it. They did too, for years they got away with it. That’s just one example out of a million. To allow free reign, unlimited power and legal exception, even to those with best of intentions, is asking for disaster.
I’m not anti-military and fully understand we need the tools and authority to do what it takes to hunt down and stop the madness. I guess it’s my distrust in human nature that makes me nervous about allowing anyone too much power.
For example, waterboarding is the big interrogation tactic that’s been all over the news for a while. If some interrogation specialist decides they need to use such a treatment they should be able to use it if it’s a legal act. Then legalize it if need be, don’t just move the prisoner outside of the jurisdiction and say it’s ok now. It shouldn’t matter how appalling it is to anyone’s sense of dignity. It’s war, it’s not supposed to be pretty. If we need special laws or courts to accomplish the mission then we should work on it. Oh wait, we do … The Geneva Convention, UCMJ (uniform code of military justice), International law and treaties. We wouldn’t need to hide out of reach from the laws if we knew our actions were legal.
Should a Detroit cop be able to beat the cohort’s names out of a murder suspect. It happens, sure, but it’s illegal because we know from human nature that many of the cops can’t handle that power and they’ll just bypass the system and start administrating their own punishment. They might think it’s better to cripple a drug dealer or maim a prostitute than to arrest them. Personally, I couldn’t care less about a murderer’s or terrorist’s rights. I just worry about the danger of allowing things to move in the wrong direction. Look how fast things got out of control with Bush. We’re at war in a country as a result of 9/11 that had nothing to do with terrorism while Osama bin Laden and other low life terrorists are still free to plot against us.
This is the first time one of my comments went longer than the post! Sorry for carrying on about it.
Hey, that’s cool, I’m glad my comment solicited such a response from you. The problem with the Geneva convention is that only those with morals stick by it the rest couldn’t care less. Perhaps Obabma should consider legalizing some of of the treatments needed to coax information out of terrorist suspects.
The thing with the cops is that what they did was above the law and therefore wrong. What they need is a special branch force or something that is specifically trained in interrogation tactics and how it can be done within the law.
Sires last blog post..Sire’s Big Moment A Total Flop
Sounds like two great suggestions to me Sire. Or even stay out of it and let things happen in dark rooms and alleys. I just don’t like it as a government sponsored program with unlimited power. It makes an interesting topic though. I haven’t had that much to say since, well who am I kidding, probably yesterday
Say Brian I keep forgetting to mention how much I love your new theme. It’s pretty good to work with isn’t it?
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Thanks Sire, I’m real happy with it. The price was right too, it was free
That’s for sure. I actually use this particular version for one of my other blogs. I think it’s one of the best free themes I’ve seen to date.
Sires last blog post..Sire’s Big Moment A Total Flop
I am so excited about President Obama and the coming term he is about to serve!!!!
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I Rusty, I have some high hopes for him too. He seems to be off to a nice start.