Originally posted by EsmeraldaX
wvrevy - I think that what I and a lot of other people feel is that this story has been repeated over and over and over again. We don't think it's right to torture prisoners, but most of also have little sympathy for terror suspects. And you can cry all day that they are innocent until proven guilty but the guys in Cuba are there because they had darn good reason to haul them in.
And this would include the former prisoners from Gitmo who have been released with no charges of wrongdoing filed against them? They were determined, after years of being held without access to a lawyer or family, to be completely innocent. But according to you, "they had darn good reason to haul them in." Well, color me confused.
In a war, fighting terrorists, you can not treat them like US citizens. In a Utopian world, we could take time out of a war so every POW could have a lawyer and go free on bail. But that is just not the way war works.
No, in war most civilized countries, of which the U.S. counts itself as one, follow something called the Geneva Conventions, which prohibits torture and abuse of prisoners. I know the issue of whether or not these prisoners are covered under the GC has been debated and beaten to death on these boards. Despite that, extending simply human respect and dignity to fellow humans is the very least we can do as a superpower. Torturing and abusing suspects is intolerable under any circumstances.
The guys they pull in from terror cells and off of the battlefield in Afghanistan are not like you & me.
So, they aren't human? Then what are they?
They think they are freedom fighters. They think that they are doing the right thing by blowing up buildings and planes and killing thousands of innocent people (in whatever country they are in).
So this makes them what -- sub-human and worthy of torture and abuse?
If we just let them go, we put ourselves and our allies in a lot of danger and I really have to say that as much as it sucks that some innocent people may be in the mix as well, the vast majority of them are not innocent. People don't just accidentally wander out onto a battlefield and start firing against us.
Who said anything about just letting them go? How about charging them with crimes, holding trials and determining their guilt or innocence. How about giving them the right to consult with an attorney. How about treating them as human beings and skipping the whole torture/abuse cycle.
I truly hope that at some point, the threats against our nation will lessen, and that we will be able to give each and every prisoner a fair shake. But until then, unfortunately, a few innocent people may have to suffer.
Why do we have to wait until some future utopian time (that will never happen BTW) for us to do what we should be doing all along.
It happens in the US (and every other country in the world's) prisons all the time. Sometimes, the police arrest the wrong person (this happened to someone very close to me; he is serving time for a crime he did not commit). Sometimes, that persons life is ruined for a long time by it (my friends will be when he gets out).
It is unfair, and horrible and it could happen to any one of us, but until we live in a Utopian society, it is the VERY SLIGHT risk we all have to take to live in a world where people who want to hurt innocent people can be arrested and kept off the streets.
I hope the innocent guys get released, I really do. It's not that I don't care. It's that I see the world one way and you , obviously see it a different way.
I love the "because everyone else does it" argument. So, if everyone else started jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge, would you join them?
Being the world's only superpower places the U.S. in an incredible position of power and with that power comes awesome responsibilities. It is becoming obvious to many around the world that we are not wielding that power appropriately. We need to be careful, lest we ostracize ourselves from the world community by our actions.
