Tuesday, December 28, 2010
The Circle is Now Complete...
Obama's Detainee Mess is the topic. The President has now completely adopted the protocols of his immediate predecessor, whom he criticized unceasingly during the campaign and for his first year and a half in office. Let's stroll down memory lane for a bit, shall we.
Aug. 2, 2007: An often repeated campaign promise, is made the first time:
July 21, 2009: The White House grants its Guantanamo closing commission an extra six months to study the situation.
Jan. 22, 2010: The one year promise anniversary. No closing. No ceremony.
Then the Empire struck back. The Democratic controlled House Armed Services Committee voted unanimously (who said bipartisanship was dead?) to prohibit a Guantanamo replacement to open within the United States.
The Obama administration utterly failed to hold a terrorist trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in New York City and quietly opts, at least regarding KSM, for the Bush Administration's policy of unlimited detention without trial or even military tribunal.
The President admits at a September 10, 2010 press conference that:
The Obama administration's crack justice department prosecutors in November, 2010 totally failed to convict Ahmed Ghailani, the confessed mastermind and participant in the 1998 bombings of our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, of even one murder count of the 284 they brought.
Now even the far left is complaining about the executive order the President will almost certainly sign, before the second anniversary of his first executive order (to close Guantanamo), which establishes indefinite detention as a long-term Obama administration policy and makes clear that the White House alone will manage a review process for those it chooses to hold without charge or trial.
Oh, the horror. /sarcasm>
Of course you can keep illegal combatants detained by the military for the duration of the war, just as you keep honorable prisoners of war detained. It's not punishment, or any sort of law enforcement--it's what always happens to the enemy captured during a war. It's so the captured don't return to the battlefield, as even the dumbest of the morons can easily comprehend. The ideal would be for the illegal combatants we have captured to be interrogated and then, when they have no additional intelligence to offer, promptly to be executed. That's what we expeditiously did to NAZI spies/saboteurs in WWII. We won that war.
The question is whether we have what it takes to win this one? It ain't looking so good right now.
Aug. 2, 2007: An often repeated campaign promise, is made the first time:
As President, I will close Guantanamo, reject the Military Commissions Act and adhere to the Geneva Conventions. Our Constitution and our Uniform Code of Military Justice provide a framework for dealing with the terrorists.Jan. 22, 2009: Barack Obama signs an executive order to close the Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility within one year:
This is me following through on not just a commitment I made during the campaign, but I think an understanding that dates back to our founding fathers, that we are willing to observe core standards of conduct, not just when it's easy, but also when it's hard.
July 21, 2009: The White House grants its Guantanamo closing commission an extra six months to study the situation.
Jan. 22, 2010: The one year promise anniversary. No closing. No ceremony.
Then the Empire struck back. The Democratic controlled House Armed Services Committee voted unanimously (who said bipartisanship was dead?) to prohibit a Guantanamo replacement to open within the United States.
The Obama administration utterly failed to hold a terrorist trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in New York City and quietly opts, at least regarding KSM, for the Bush Administration's policy of unlimited detention without trial or even military tribunal.
The President admits at a September 10, 2010 press conference that:
Well, the -- you know, we have succeeded on delivering a lot of campaign promises that we made. One where we've fallen short is closing Guantanamo. I wanted to close it sooner. We have missed that deadline. It's not for lack of trying. It's because the politics of it are difficult.What a freakin' crybaby!
The Obama administration's crack justice department prosecutors in November, 2010 totally failed to convict Ahmed Ghailani, the confessed mastermind and participant in the 1998 bombings of our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, of even one murder count of the 284 they brought.
Now even the far left is complaining about the executive order the President will almost certainly sign, before the second anniversary of his first executive order (to close Guantanamo), which establishes indefinite detention as a long-term Obama administration policy and makes clear that the White House alone will manage a review process for those it chooses to hold without charge or trial.
Oh, the horror. /sarcasm>
Of course you can keep illegal combatants detained by the military for the duration of the war, just as you keep honorable prisoners of war detained. It's not punishment, or any sort of law enforcement--it's what always happens to the enemy captured during a war. It's so the captured don't return to the battlefield, as even the dumbest of the morons can easily comprehend. The ideal would be for the illegal combatants we have captured to be interrogated and then, when they have no additional intelligence to offer, promptly to be executed. That's what we expeditiously did to NAZI spies/saboteurs in WWII. We won that war.
The question is whether we have what it takes to win this one? It ain't looking so good right now.
Labels: Barack Obama: Global War on Terror: Guantanamo Bay
# posted by Roger Fraley @ 1:28 PM 
