irony or idiocy? we report… you decide

June 16, 2005

From the white house:


Iraq is free of the man who caused there to be mass graves. Iraq
is free of rape rooms and torture chambers. Iraq is free of a brutal thug.
America did the right thing


you know, aside from the debacle at AbuGhraib, which, if I’m not mistaken is in Iraq.

but that’s old news, right. So how about the clusterfuck that is Gitmo? You know, the one with prisoners chained up in the fetal position, wallowing in their own crapulence. Right, the place down there that we’re leasing from Cuba, as far as I can tell, just so that we can avoid the US courts’ jurisdiction. You know, the place where we stash foreigners that we would like to charge with crimes but don’t have enough evidence? The last time I checked, there was a presumption of innocence, and a right and expectation to defense and due process. And although I’m not too familiar with Geneva, I imagine the basic tenets are the same.

Which is why we have rules, this isn’t fucking ‘Nam, donnie, you are totally out of your element. A government of a “free society” cannot simply hold people because they don’t have enough evidence to charge them, because that effectively negates the presumed innocence. You are now presuming them guilty, and holding out for more (if any) evidence. The question to ask, then, is: When are you satisfied that there exists no evidence that will be sufficient enough to bring charges against someone you are detaining? When do you let them go, when you can’t prove they have commit a crime?

“It’s our position that, legally, they can be held in perpetuity,” [Deputy Associate Attorney General J. Michael] Wiggins said. (Reuters)

Iraq might be free of this sort of thing, but the US certainly is not. Yeah, “America did the right thing.” Doing the right thing doesn’t justify or negate subsequent wrongdoings. It’s like picking up a hitchhiker in a blizzard, and then raping her before you drop her off– you initially did a righteous thing, which you use as justification or a mitigating circumstance with regards to future misdeeds.


Posted in: Potpourri

Comments

Leave a Comment

If you would like to make a comment, please fill out the form below.

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

Comments

Archives

Categories