Guantanamo idiot person
Here's what I need: as many Americans as possible to comment on here to reassure me that America has not gone completely and utterly insane.
"The three suicides at Guantanamo Bay consitute an Act of War against America"
WTF???
How do such monumental twats get to be in charge of a prison? Oh yeah, it's not a proper prison... it's outside American jurisdiction after all, and therefore presumably they can appoint any old moron to run it.
I am so angry. What makes me especially angry is this: I can allow that there are morons in positions of power in the States like anywhere else (*cough*Chirac*cough*). What I can't understand is the wealth of comments on the BBC website from Americans going "well, yeah, he's right of course, I mean, like, they are terrorists after all so obviously they don't succumb to despair and just commit suicide when they're held for three years without trial".
If they are terrorists, you bunch of dimwits, why haven't you tried them yet???? And why aren't you holding them in an American prison where American law applies, if you're so sure... I believe the relevant phrase is "innocent till proven guilty"?
And if you don't have any proof of them being terrorists, why are you still holding them at all, after 3 years? If you don't have the proof that you need in order to convict them, then how can you assume that they didn't just succumb to despair, like many of your own citizens do every year in American prisons EVEN AFTER being tried fairly? Are Muslims not human beings with emotions too? Or are you just total, total, utter, imbeciles?
On the other hand maybe I'm over-reacting, maybe this was indeed an Act of War against America. An Act of War by three citizens of different nations, who actually have no power to launch their nations or anyone else into a war with America in the first place, and who in fact are not considered prisoners of war (otherwise you'd have to apply the Geneva Convention to them, which you've said you won't) and therefore not actually capable of committing an act of war, but let's ignore that temporarily... So the problem, as I see it, with that line of thinking is this: there are lots of prisoners in America. Many of them are American citizens, and are not prisoners-of-war. If suicide in prison = act of war, surely America must be engaged in a civil war right now? I know Britain would be, as there are suicides quite frequently in prisons.
And if America is in a civil war, what are you wasting all your resources abroad for, eh? (Oh yeah, O.I.L., as it used to be known)
USE SOME LOGIC, MAN!
Which is why I need reassurance. If you want to read for yourselves the comments, go here: http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?threadID=2162&&edition=2&ttl=20060611180523
Someone please please remind me that many, nay most of you, are not merely intelligent life-forms, but human beings capable of using that intelligence. (Non Americans may also apply, especially if any of you want to redress the balance by proving that there are dimwits outside the States too, you never know, it might help).
"The three suicides at Guantanamo Bay consitute an Act of War against America"
WTF???
How do such monumental twats get to be in charge of a prison? Oh yeah, it's not a proper prison... it's outside American jurisdiction after all, and therefore presumably they can appoint any old moron to run it.
I am so angry. What makes me especially angry is this: I can allow that there are morons in positions of power in the States like anywhere else (*cough*Chirac*cough*). What I can't understand is the wealth of comments on the BBC website from Americans going "well, yeah, he's right of course, I mean, like, they are terrorists after all so obviously they don't succumb to despair and just commit suicide when they're held for three years without trial".
If they are terrorists, you bunch of dimwits, why haven't you tried them yet???? And why aren't you holding them in an American prison where American law applies, if you're so sure... I believe the relevant phrase is "innocent till proven guilty"?
And if you don't have any proof of them being terrorists, why are you still holding them at all, after 3 years? If you don't have the proof that you need in order to convict them, then how can you assume that they didn't just succumb to despair, like many of your own citizens do every year in American prisons EVEN AFTER being tried fairly? Are Muslims not human beings with emotions too? Or are you just total, total, utter, imbeciles?
On the other hand maybe I'm over-reacting, maybe this was indeed an Act of War against America. An Act of War by three citizens of different nations, who actually have no power to launch their nations or anyone else into a war with America in the first place, and who in fact are not considered prisoners of war (otherwise you'd have to apply the Geneva Convention to them, which you've said you won't) and therefore not actually capable of committing an act of war, but let's ignore that temporarily... So the problem, as I see it, with that line of thinking is this: there are lots of prisoners in America. Many of them are American citizens, and are not prisoners-of-war. If suicide in prison = act of war, surely America must be engaged in a civil war right now? I know Britain would be, as there are suicides quite frequently in prisons.
And if America is in a civil war, what are you wasting all your resources abroad for, eh? (Oh yeah, O.I.L., as it used to be known)
USE SOME LOGIC, MAN!
Which is why I need reassurance. If you want to read for yourselves the comments, go here: http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?threadID=2162&&edition=2&ttl=20060611180523
Someone please please remind me that many, nay most of you, are not merely intelligent life-forms, but human beings capable of using that intelligence. (Non Americans may also apply, especially if any of you want to redress the balance by proving that there are dimwits outside the States too, you never know, it might help).