Covered As Extensively as Gitmo
Apparently a small portion of those that have been released from Gitmo have turned up in Afghanistan fighting our forces there. Im sure you guys have already heard about this. It’s been covered almost as much as the illegality of Gitmo.
As a news source hoping to convey neutrality you would have a vested interest in covering this story. It precisely the evidence supporters of Gitmo would use to show that detaining non-citizens helps prevent the death of ours and our allies soldiers and citizens.
July 29th, 2007 at 3:11 pm
Give me a break…. By typing “former gitmo detainees fighting in Afghanistan” into “the google” I found links to this story from several sites you claim to be MSM including MSNBC and CBS news.
July 29th, 2007 at 4:16 pm
So what I mean is a front page headline held there consistently for a period of time. Like many of the left leaning characterizations enjoyed when it was deemed a big story.
July 30th, 2007 at 7:42 am
Why do you think these stories are equivalent? It’s not at all surprising, and not very relevant to most americans, that some of those former detainees are now enemy combatants. It’s very disturbing, and important for us to know, that the US government is dissapearing people around the world and holding them in secret prisons without trial, and sometimes torturing them, and etc. As someone who’s always afraid that the government will become corrupt and totalitarian, I can never understand why you don’t find these things to be newsworthy.
July 31st, 2007 at 12:12 am
It’s unsurprising that you find one of these stories less interesting than one of the other stories. Of course the one that got more coverage is also the one you find also more interesting. Turns out the people making the decisions for coverage voted for the same people you did. What a remarkable coincidence. To what do we attribute this connection to? To what in the world?
I’m not that interested in non-citizens. Especially the ones that don’t have a state willing to vouch for them. You, and your Kerry voting buddies seem to care an awfully lot about non-citizens. Sometimes your concern for non citizens can be harmful to actual citizens. For example your concern for detained non-citizens is so great your willing to free some of them even if that means they will rejoin the fight and kill some of our actual citizen soldiers.
July 31st, 2007 at 10:24 am
You’re right; given your value system, the obvious solution is to simply kil all non-citizens on the planet; therefore they would be unable to ever harm any citizens. Why haven’t you argued this position before.
Also, I’m having a hard time reconciling your disregard for the well-being of non-citizens with your position that the invasion of Iraq was justified on humanitarian grounds. Why would you ever want to spend the lives of US soldiers on a humanitarian mission?
July 31st, 2007 at 12:11 pm
But Steve…. I thought you wanted to bring democracy to everyone. All of that deep rhetoric about the love of american values and love of life and now you tell me you don’t care about aboiut non-citizens? Color me shocked.
July 31st, 2007 at 5:41 pm
Darwin,
You seem to have sidestepped the obvious problems of your argument, no prob, we will address your criticisms of mine.
I’m not sure what inference you can make about my value system. My distinction is legal. Non-citizens do not enjoy the same rights as citizens. My claim was further attenuated by the phrase ‘a state willing to vouch for them’ meaning that these individuals don’t even have people back home fighting for their freedom. Really I don’t understand why you are so caught up on the rights of non-citizens who are captured in close proximity to training grounds of organizations hell bent on destroying our nation. Furthermore, these individual have nobody back home petitioning their own government to use diplomatic means to get these individuals back implying nobody cares they are gone, most likely for good reasons.
In your argumentation you strip away all these characteristics. You intentionally make these people as plain as possible so as to play up the notion that they are just like you and me. This creates the appearance of greater injustice then is really present.
My reasons for invading Iraq have much more to with establishing democracies in the region than on humanitarian grounds. I use the humanitarian argument when others try to make the argument that Iraq was better off during Saddam’s rule which is patently false. However I will gladly remind anyone interested that success in Iraq does mean a large group of non-citizens will enjoy a better life thanks to chiefly to the sacrifice of some of our citizens. This is merely a beneficial byproduct of my primary reasoning for being there.
Jamie,
Sure democracy for all, what do I care.? I wish to use the establishment of democracy as a tool to bring about reform in regions that are producing individuals interested in killing US citizens.
August 1st, 2007 at 2:10 am
” I wish to use the establishment of democracy as a tool to bring about reform in regions that are producing individuals interested in killing US citizens.”
YOU WISH?
YOU USE?
YOU WANT TO BRING ABOUT REFORM?
YOU WANT TO MISSIONARIZE THE WORLD?
WHY?
What legitimate reason qualifies you and leading American hardliners to display this kind of megalomanical arrogance towards other human beings, towards other cultures, other political structures? I still and probably never know WHY you think you’re entitled to think that you’re legitimate to do this.
And again - it’s just a reiteration, a repetition of something we’ve already discussed and been trough. Very back in your blog, you asked me whether “the Germans wouldn’t be thankful for all the Care-packages sent by the Americans”. In hindsight, I would say: You’d better eaten them alone.
August 1st, 2007 at 8:49 am
Steve feels democracy and American culture are fundamental biological needs…. It’s exactly what you called it: megalomania, cultural arrogance, and bigotry.
August 1st, 2007 at 10:24 am
Sorry about liking America and thinking its the best. I will get to work on fixing that. Dont know what I was thinking like my country.
August 1st, 2007 at 11:03 am
funny side story: During my commencement at the Civic Auditorium, they all started to sing the national anthem. So, everyone stood up, me too (and I have nothing against national anthems), everyone put their hands on their heart. I did not, neither did I sing (why should I, after all it’s better that I don’t sing). So, my neighbor literally PUNCHED me in the side (we’re talking about real physical aggression here), and signaled that I should sing, as well. mmh - this little story can be enlarged into a bigger picture - and what you get then are not graduees that are punched in the side, but cultures and systems destroyed and oppressed just for the sake of national interests.
totally unrelated: Do you have installed a feature that translates words when you move your mouse on those words? That is a pretty handy thing, even though some of the GRE words fail to be translated even by this program. Or is this my computer that does that? Noticed that right now, never seen that before.