Voices: Dinosaur of redundancy

June 24, 2009 07:51 pm

— Will we have a Heid-free Globe for a while now that we’ve seen his “position paper” of a variety of subjects?
As for “Gitmo,” I pondered one person’s thought that it is technically illegal to house the prisoners at the Leavenworth site, one of the most-mentioned. This morning it came to me that the unsaid fact may be further true that it would be unconstitutional to house them anywhere on American soil — their very presence would afford them rights not yet currently granted them. As for torture, again, if I was subjected to any of the reported treatments (none denied, apparently), I would consider it torture. As the comedic hypocrisy goes — “surgery is minor until it happens to me.”
As for closings, we have seen the end of our agreements in the canal zone (Panama) and Clark in the Philippines, besides a few hundred other bases, in recent years. The base is no longer relevant to deter the failed remnants of Castroism, there being ample deterrent in Florida alone.
Guantanamo might well be a dinosaur of redundancy and obsolescence. To maintain the base simply because it gives us opportunity to do what would otherwise be illegal? Go figure. Obama will simply hasten the trials, long overdue, of the remaining prisoners to avoid the further foot-dragging of the obstinate, vote-seeking stonewallers.
Bill Hawkins
Joplin