As we watch Obama turn into just another stuffed suit with a conservative agenda (“did I say Change? Oh, no, you must have understood me wrong; I just wanted to know if you could break a twenty, that’s all…”) there is no end to the supply of ill-informed discourse on matters of life and death and civilization and democracy. Digby tears apart the latest round of ignorance as presented by two US Senators as they “discuss” the myriad reasons why they can’t support the closure of Gitmo.
Digby, Greenwald and everyone else has already pointed out most of the embarrasing shit these scumbags put up as their rationale, but there’s just one small point I wanted to add: if, as Chambliss and Nelson claim, everybody in Gitmo is known to have killed Americans, then why can’t we try them for just such a crime? If you have enough proof to definitively state that they’re horrible no good awful people who have done terrible things, then presumably you have a case to take to court. That was how stuff like this used to work until our legal system suddenly, inexplicably failed and had to be set aside for waterboarding and indefinite detention.
On the other hand: if you don’t have any proof that would stand up in court, then what possible justification do you have for detaining these people in the first place? The word of some random “ally” in Northern Pakistan who picked up a guy that he thought looked suspicious and maybe belonged to a tribe he didn’t care for anyway, and so, “here, Uncle Sam, this is a very bad man, take him away please.”
It’s sad, but I think it’s really over. Obama was supposed to be the hail mary pass for democracy and decency and the rule of law, accountability and all that, and instead he’s proven to be a complete waste of time. Not surprising, alas, but really, really disappointing and deeply troubling.
