Gloomy Guantanamo Bay
King Henry VIII had the Tower of London. Nikita Khrushchev had the Gulags of Siberia. Guantanamo Bay seems to be George Bush’s barbaric detention center of choice.
During previous conflicts, US troops near the front lines took the lead in processing battlefield detainees. But as with every other military precedent, the Bush team figured they knew a better way. So detainees rounded up in 2002-2003 were shipped off to secret prisons around the world. Many of these men ended up in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The Bush administration spinmeisters then came up with the term “illegal enemy combatants” to describe fighters captured in Afghanistan, as though these prisoners were completely different from any other soldiers seized by American forces in the past. Here again the president employed misleading rhetoric designed to keep Americans from learning the truth about his legally and ethically questionable decisions.
The Geneva Conventions apply to enemy soldiers captured by US forces on the battlefield. According to this international treaty signed by the United States, prisoners must be humanely treated, and must at all times be protected “against acts of violence or intimidation and against insults and public curiosity.”
The Bush administration’s relentless drive to bypass co-equal branches of government has left the Guantanamo detainees in legal limbo for six years. The Supreme Court recently blocked the president’s latest power grab by ruling that the Guantanamo Bay prisoners indeed have the right to challenge the legality of their detention in Federal Court.
Respect is a two way street. George Bush has shown no respect for international law, for the US Constitution or for those who disagree with him. That’s why so many people have lost respect for his presidency.
Guantanamo Bay, George W. Bush, Bush Administration, Prisoners of War, Enemy Combatants, Geneva Conventions
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