News For The Day - 12 Jun 2009

I went out of my way today, trying to find something newsworthy. Slow Friday, I know. The one headline that leaped out at me was "Obama Won't Rule Out Releasing Gitmo prisoners into US". HOLY SHITBALLS BATMAN! What kind of drunken, stupified MORON would do this? I had my doubts about this president, but now, I KNOW that he's lost it (if he ever had it, that is). Why? Read on.

First, a little history. Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is a relic of the Cold War (starting right around the Korean Conflict, circa 1954). It was originally 'negotiated' between the US and Cuba as a treaty condition. That conversation went something like this:

USA: Castro, do you like your country?
Cuba: Yes, I like it very much.
USA: Would you like to see your country bombed into rubble?
Cuba: No, why?
USA: Because having a Socialist country that close to Florida makes the Defense Department nervous. We (the State Department) calmed them down, told them that it's not a good idea to turn you into rubble. BUT, we have these prisoners that we don't want here. You have some spare land, over there on the far side of the island.
Cuba: How about you put your prison over there on that piece of land, and you don't bomb us back to the Stone Age?

That was all paraphrased and oversimplified, but you get the gist. Cuba remained a viable country, the US got surveillance of Cuba, and a place to put prisoners who could be expected to cause serious national harm if released or escaped.

Fast forward half a century or so, to the present-day. For roughly 50 years now, we have been using Gitmo as a storehouse for a certain class of prisoners. Political? Sort of. Treasonous? No. You cannot commit treason against a country to which you have no loyalty. Terrorist? Most are suspected or known to be. In short, these prisoners are the baddest of the bad. While I can't speak of every inmate there, I'd say a great majority are there for a reason.

So corralled in this off-shore bad-boy-camp we have a bunch of folks that are not overly happy about the American people, and the US Government. Even if 45% of inmates were the international equivalent of 19-year-olds jailed for possession of pot, or shoplifting, what you end up with is exactly the same as the referenced 19-year-old; someone who bears no love or respect for their jailers, and who have learned 'bad habits' from those that were incarcerated for greater crimes. If you didn't have a problem with them before, you will now.

And our illustrious President wants to release these characters into the very population that they have the most reason to dislike. Doesn't this sound like a fantastic idea?

Rather than releasing these inmates into the US, I have a better idea. Make them each stand trial, and here are the options:
1) Found innocent - Repatriation to the country of their choice
2) Guilty, time served equal or greater than sentance - Repatriation to either home country, or country to be determined by lottery (if inmate claims US as homeland). Revoke US passport, and 'black-list' inmate from ever being granted passage into the US.
3) Guilty - Country of repatriation to be determined by the judging body using the following guidelines: Consider inmate's heritage, religion, and sociopolitical stance, then send them to a country where one or more of those criteria could cause a problem... i.e. Palestinian prisoner, locked up for sabotage of US or Israeli forces; give them an outfit with a sign on it (something to the effect of Israeli-killer in Hebrew), and drop them off with the Mossad.

Cruel and unusual? I'll allow unusual, but you NEED unusual to make the punishment something to be feared. Cruel? Meh. A punishment can only be 'cruel' if it abrogates the rights of citizens. In my mind, you commit treason, actively work against the United States, you have forfeited any claim to be a US citizen.

Until Next Time!