With this I agree. It is important that we can all pretend that each of the justices hasn't already decided 99% of the cases before they actually reach the court.

I actually have no problem with the idea that the people at Guantanamo have no right to jury trials or whatever. They are essentially POWs and such a right has never attached.

However, as near as I can tell, we are no longer engaged in a war with Afghanistan which means it is time for all of those people to be returned home and let the government of Afghanistan decide what to do with people who fought on that side of the war.

Since we are no longer at war, they are no longer the equivalent of POWs, which means we now need a good reason for imprisonment and need to prove it.


And GC, of course he doesn't approve of it. If he did it wouldn't be an insult.

Yeah, GC, to the rest of the country it's an insult. On the LoT it's just bragging about your Friday night.

Yes, they are in a legal limbo, at the whim of - - - are we still insisting that we are a democratic republic? Or is a nation which imprisons POWs after a war is over, detaining them indefinitely while specifically denying they have any rights under federal law, international law or the Geneva Conventions .... tell me again what form of government that is?

It's a CHRISTIAN government, baby!

Sort of. The problem as I see it is that the government's trying to play it both ways. "These are POWs, so we have a right to try them in tribunals." Okay fine, but at the same time they're saying, "These are ununiformed 'enemy combatants' and therefore we are under no obligation to grant them even the most basic rights afforded POWs."

Either they're POWs or they aren't.

Or last night.



I've said too much.
:D

The doing of bad things is in no way contradictory with being a democratic republic so I have no problem keeping the label.

GD, I don't disagree that the government is trying have its cake and eat it to. I was only sharing how I view the people at Guantanamo. And by that perspective they should either have all been released a couple years ago regardless of how complicit they were with al Qaeda and the Taliban. Or, when the war was essentially over, they should have been converted from combatants to criminals and given due process. And since most of their criminal acts would have been in Afghanistan, they should be returned to Afghanistan for that due process.

Heheh, that reminds me of something I just heard (hmmm, maybe another tangent coming on?)

Hey, if I'm angry about it, it fits in this thread. Right?

I think that's a great quote.

That is perfect! I love it!