Sunday, June 11, 2006

I don't normally "do" politics

but I'm going to make an exception today.

According to the BBC, three detainees at Guantanamo Bay have committed suicide. They weren't the first to attempt to do so, just the first to succeed.

The response of the Camp Commander, Rear Adm Harry Harris, has left me feeling both sickened and shocked.

Rear Adm Harris said he did not believe the men had killed themselves out of despair.

"They are smart. They are creative, they are committed," he said.

"They have no regard for life, either ours or their own. I believe this was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us."


How on earth do you characterise suicide, in a cell, using bedsheets and clothing, as an act of warfare?

The men had apparently been on hunger strike, and had been force-fed by the US military, before they killed themselves. From what I've read, they must have been desperate: there is no hope of their being brought to trial, no information on what they are accused of, and hence no chance of their being able to defend themselves and either serve their punishment or be freed.

I used to have a great deal of respect for the American Dream, and the people who worked so hard to make it possible. I still think their are lots of good Americans, but my feelings towards America as a political entity are distinctly mixed.

How can you claim to uphold the rule of law, and favour democracy, when your own people are stretching the law to the point of breaking, and apparently only support democracy outwith the USA when the people vote as you want them to?

7 Comments:

Blogger Helen said...

I couldn't agree with you more about how shocking and depressing I found his remarks. I find it worrying too that a senior member of the armed forces would make such politically charged comments: it's not his job.

It is shocking and depressing too that our government is doing so little about Guantanamo; I feel quite ashamed.

12/6/06 08:54  
Blogger Jean said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

14/6/06 06:16  
Blogger Jean said...

And one of them was 21 -- that could well mean that he had been banged up in that hellhole since he was 17.

(This is the comment deleted above -- there was a bad mis-spelling in the original version.)

Jean

14/6/06 06:18  
Blogger fiberfanatic said...

It is frightening that there is no care for civil rights!

Our system is broken.

16/6/06 20:48  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Civil rights? Should the OKLAHOMA Federal Building bombing perpetrators have civil rights? How about the Iraqi assassins who continue to detonate deadly car bombs and kill American GI's who are trying to free the country of murderers like Saddam and create a democtaric society. Depressing? Ask the families of those Americans who have been beheaded, bombed, and tortured what depressing means to them. Shocking and depressing? Get a life folks, otherwise take a trip to Iraq or Afganistan and tell the indigenous peoples you are there to help them. You too can have the opportunity to get beheaded; then come back as a spirit and then tell us how it was.

18/6/06 13:37  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thank you anonymous!!!

18/6/06 20:58  
Blogger Dez Crawford said...

I wish those who posted as "anonymous" had the courage to publish their names. They certainly need not fear retribution from other knitters. This is a forum for discussion of ideas, after all.

If Americans are to "fight for" the ideals of democracy, we must walk our talk. With many family members in the military, I cringe at the notion of how many more generations of my nieces and nephews will continue to be deployed overseas until the world -- including America -- learns to behave itself.

Yes, Islamic reactionaries behead people, and worse. All the more reason NOT to stoop to their level.

26/6/06 18:02  

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