POST SCRIPTS

No - it's not "fair" to let proven killers out.

But it's not "fair" to keep UNproven killers in custody without any end in sight.

We used to be so proud that we only punished by court sentence. If these people are guilty, let's prove it (and lock 'em up or execute them). If they're NOT guilty, let us let them out - some have been in Gitmo for more than 4 years.

Every minute that we let an innocent suffer and do nothing is a year in Purgatory when God catches up with us to balance the ledger.

The chances are that some / many of these detainees _are_ innocent - after all: who trusts 'Military Intelligence', that great oxymoron?

H

Thank you for your comments Hoddy. Your remarks reveal a lack of knowledge or understanding regarding those who engage in acts of war.

But it's not "fair" to keep UNproven killers in custody without any end in sight.

The people in Guantanamo, as the article said, 1) Explicitly and without qualification supported or waged hostile activities against the U.S. or coalition partners, 2) Fought for al Qaeda or the Taliban or associated forces, 3) Received training in an al Qaeda or Taliban training camp, 4) Received training in the use of combat weapons beyond small arms (grenades, rpg's, ied's, sniper rifles, etc.)

"Innocent" detainees have been released (some 30 of these have been proven to be not innocent after all). The remaining detainees have engaged in activities associated with terroristic warfare. This makes them prisoners of war. Detaining the enemy in this way is not unprecedented. Our soldiers have been held as prisoners of war by other countries and were not treated with the dignity and care the US affords these men.

We used to be so proud that we only punished by court sentence.

First of all these men are not being "punished"...they are being detained. They chose to involve themselves in war and until the war is resolved they will be held. It is an intelligent and useful tactic of war used to limit the enemies chance to kill our troops and other innocent people. Secondly, these men are not US citizens or common criminals and should not be treated as such. Third, we are not the aggressors in this war. You, and others like you seem to forget that.

who trusts 'Military Intelligence', that great oxymoron?

Nice parting shot...and fun joke, I guess, for those who have absolutely zero appreciation for the people who are working hard to secure our safety and freedom.

"Every minute that we let an innocent suffer and do nothing is a year in Purgatory when God catches up with us to balance the ledger."

We are a nation of rules and laws and after careful study on repeated occasions, the persons detained in Gitmo have been found to meet the minimum requirements of justifying their further detention.

Ok, that is the technical part, now lets look at the moral part and common sense part.

Liberals seem to make the mistake of assuming innocence and denying evil. I say this because liberals mistakenly assumed we must have done some dastardly deed to provoked 9/11 as if this fits neatly into the theory of for action there is reaction.

If you believe this line of thinking, then you must believe Hitler's extermination of the Jews was a simple re-action to a great evil the Jews perpetrated on humanity!

FACT: There is evil in the world! Sometimes people do evil things for twisted, sick reasons. 9/11 is a classic example of how perverted logic was used by fanatics to reach an otherwise morally unacceptable and inhumane choice.

This deviated logic now rounds up Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters from Maddrassas schools and Mosques run by fanatics similarly seduced by their own false rhetoric to fight us on what they see is ground zero...IRAQ! IRAQ is a magnet for these guys and we are figthing them to the death there...not here, despite a number of tries by them to do so.

These are truly dangerous and evil people being held in Gitmo. Any one of them is quite capable of committing another heinous act against humanity in the name of their religion. One has only to observe the actions to see this risk. We've been fooled before and we recently trusted one of these terrorists who said he rennounced his ways and he went right back to being a terrorist in Pakistan and gloated how he "fooled us".

If we have made a mistake here, then our only mistake was to deny them a courts martial and take the same action we did with a Nazi fanatics called Werewolves after WWII ended.

You want to talk about burning in Hell...hey, let me tell you if you let one of these scummy fanatical bast#2@s free and he murders YOU should join him in Hell as a co-conspirator!

It's people like you that are encouraging and embolding this evil enemy. In my book, that makes YOU and your rhetoric part of the problem that threatens my country and my safety. I am holding Y-O-U partially to blame for the deaths of innocent people at the hands of terrorists anywhere in the world by your support for them by running down your country! You are a useful fool, don't you get it?

Why don't you get your head screwed on straight and stand up for your country? You would, IF you had any sense!!!!