There are a lot of things that piss me off, but there’s really nothing that angers me like the politicians who defend the prison in Guantanamo Bay and oppose transferring even the innocent out of that indefinite extrajudicial detention facility. Part of it is that it offends me when my elected representatives behave like a bunch of bedwetting sissies who are afraid to put terrorist suspects in our maximum (Supermax) prisons. Part of it is that George W. Bush filled Guantanamo with a hodgepodge of people, some of whom were extraordinarily dangerous and some of whom were entirely guiltless. Part of it is that people were in some cases horribly mistreated at Gitmo. Part of it is that almost everyone agrees that creating Gitmo was a mistake, a major moral failing, a huge propaganda boon to America-haters, a failure of both our military and civilian criminal justice system, a major blow to our heritage and our international image, and one of Congress’s biggest fuck-ups on record.
But maybe the biggest problem is the same one that so angered me about Republican opposition to the 2009 economic stimulus bills. If you make an enormous blunder and create a huge mess, it’s your obligation to try to make it right. And if you’re not up to the task of helping to make it right, at least get out of the way and let others give it a shot. But to handcuff the president and refuse to let him even try to clean up your wreckage?
In any other area of life, how would you react to that kind of behavior?
Who were the nine idiot Democrats?
My biggest problem is the pretense of caring about human rights while doing everything possible to flip the bird at the Geneva Conventions.
And the two issues that most demonstrate this are the US actions in Guantanamo and other secret prisons and US silence at the Israeli occupation and annexation of Palestine.
And it’s the same crowd behind both of these.
My biggest problem with the Republicans and foreign policy right now is that they are themselves legislating failures in order ensure that the President has a failure in foreign policy. The 47 Senate ayatollahs’ letter to Iran, the threatened legislation to tie the President’s hands on Iran, and now this.
On this one, I think the President should take the bait and veto the National Defense Authorization Act. And while they are debating overturning the veto, move all prisoners to the US and shut down Guantanamo.
But that’s not the President’s style. And it will come back to haunt future Presidents.
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My biggest problem with the Republicans and foreign policy right now is that they are themselves legislating failures in order ensure that the President has a failure in foreign policy.
Throw out Foreign, and your thoughts are both more Generic and MORE Specific! Is that possible? I think so.
If you don’t admit it’s a fuck-up, it isn’t a fuck-up.
And if it’s not a fuck-up, it doesn’t need fixing.
QED.
If you don’t admit it’s a fuck-up, it isn’t a fuck-up.
And if it’s not a fuck-up, it doesn’t need fixing.
QED.
Is that a new variation of the very contagious Conservative disease known as ROMNESIA?
Crotch-kicking isn’t really an option, but it’s the first thing what comes to mind.
And yes, I know that’s somewhat at odds with my sig. Just call me Walt.
I hate the modern GOP; that goes without saying. They are in no serious sense a governing party anymore and I hope they one day have to answer to a higher power. That said, I cannot express my anger at the Democratic pussies who wet their pants instead of backing the president. What an unprincipled bunch of ninnies.
The proper comparison for GITMO is the BERLIN WALL.
Tear down that wall, President Obama, and don’t allow Republicans to keep this national disgrace open!
I’m all willing and Yankee Doodle Patriotic to get the worst of the worst into good, All-American supermaxes, our version of the oubliettes, and start driving those evil, wicked, bloodthirsty savages (EWBS) insane. But of the folks posted at Camp Happy, which ones are the EWBS, and why can’t we try them, prove our case, and lock them up? Or is that “speedy trial” language reserved for exceptionally exceptional people like most of us?
I really have to get a new pair of pinking shears. Try as I might, I just can’t seem to trim the Constitution to fit the fashions of the fearmongers. Guantanamo Bay will be remembered as our exceptional under God equivalent of the Black Hole of Calcutta or Devil’s Island.
Are we sure Obama really wants to close Gitmo? Given his fondness for drone strikes, one wonders if he really cares that some are subjected to endless imprisonment. Life at Gitmo pales in comparison to his wars in Yemen, Pakistan etc.
The foreign policy of the United States is morally repugnant and it really doesn’t appear to matter who the president is.
And forced feeding?