Scribblings

Remember Guantanamo Bay?

It has totally dropped out of the national conversation. Which means that Americans are content to have their very own gulag from which there is no escape, no justice and no need to prove any criminal act. You go to Guantanamo and you never come back.

There are prisoners who have been there now for almost 17 years with no trial, no access to any form of justice and no idea of how long we plan to keep them there or if we ever plan to address their case and resolve it.

Is that truly what we want to be as Americans? How is this any different from tyrants all over the world throwing people into prison with no recourse to justice or without even knowing what they are charged with. Sure, some prisoners may be guilty of something but we’ll never know what for so long as we keep them locked up with no hope for the future and no idea if they will ever get a chance to tell their story in a court of law.

When we fought conventional wars, keeping prisoners of war incarcerated until the war ended made sense. Once it ended, they were sent home. But we aren’t in a conventional war. Hell, I don’t even know what to term our current conflicts. What I do know is that they are mostly undeclared, un-approved by a congressional vote and seemingly never ending while most of us have no idea why we’re there fighting anyway.

This makes me so sad. We have become a nation ruled by a bully while our congress cowers in fear of him and we hold people in indefinite detention despite the fact that they have never been convicted of any crime or ever been given a chance to prove their innocence.

If I wrote that last sentence about Russia, we’d all be outraged at their actions. But I am writing about a country that used to believe in human rights and the rule of law. I am just sick at heart to know that my country is now no better than any country out there and much worst than many.