Infinite MonkeysMichael Ledeen on The Corner pulled out this gem of a quote from a previous war — showing that second-guessing of war strategy by (er) editorial writers has long been a staple of the newspaper business.
It appears we have appointed our worst generals to command forces, and our most gifted and brilliant to edit newspapers! In fact, I discovered by reading newspapers that these editor/geniuses plainly saw all my strategic defects from the start, yet failed to inform me until it was too late. Accordingly, I'm readily willing to yield my command to these obviously
superior intellects, and I'll, in turn, do my best for the cause by writing editorials - after the fact.
Robert E. Lee, 1863
Such snarkiness from the paragon of gentlemanly virtue is worth noting today as it was 144 years ago.
Posted by Dr. Zaius at June 24, 2007 08:35 AMThey don't have the access to lawyers that other people who haven't been found guilty of a crime have. The article to which you link makes that clear. And I noticed there is no response to my claims that these prisoners are being denied habeas corpus and contact with their families, despite being neither charged with a crime nor designated a prisoner of war.
On the second point, my "how do you know this?" was directed at the claim that they get "pretty good treatment down at Gitmo," not the claim that the prisoners attack guards. With unnecessarily limited press or public access to Gitmo, we are left to decide between the claims of prisoners and the claims of the state regarding how they are treated. Neither source is likely to be reliable.
The Mother Jones quote is arguably the epitome of cherry-picking a quote. I would encourage readers to peruse the whole article. If one of our soldiers (or private security forces) was taken captive, how would the right respond if they "cooperated with interrogators" in order to be afforded the basic rights guaranteed to prisoners of war by the Geneva Conventions?
I reiterate: The government should charge them with a crime, designate and treat them as prisoners of war, or release them.
Posted by: Monkey RobbL at June 24, 2007 04:35 PM