What’s Wrong With Guantanamo Bay? Nothing!! On The Contrary, It’s The Only Arrangement That Makes Sense!!
What’s Wrong With Guantanamo Bay? Nothing!! On The Contrary, It’s The Only Arrangement That Makes Sense!!
By
Ken Eliasberg
The prison facility at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba GITMO) has received an incredible amount of media attention, most of which is an effort to make it a poster child for the character assassination, and, worse yet, the criminalization of the Bush Administration, their legal advisors, and, by implied inclusion, the members of the military who ran this facility. All of the negative publicity is not just erroneous and detrimental to our national security, it is a despicable exercise on the part of the left in this country to elevate power over principle (which seems to have become the modus operandi of the Democratic Party since the days of Carter, advanced somewhat energetically by Clinton, and now being promoted enthusiastically by our teleprompter-in-chief). Before going further, let me recommend a superb article in the June issue of Commentary Magazine by Arthur Herman, The Gitmo Myth and the Torture Canard (which you can also find at commentarymagazine.com). There are a number of excellent pieces on this subject, all of which make it abundantly clear that the Bush Administration acted in complete and total compliance with whatever the appropriate legal standard of conduct that was required of them, but the Herman piece is an excellent review of the subject — for anyone who is interested in an accurate and scholarly treatment of the subject.
Everyone that I have spoken to or have been briefed by who has visited GITMO states unequivocally that it is an exceptional prison facility, one of the finest in the world.
As Herman points out (at page 10): “As for the issue of abuse, a total of twelve separate investigations over fifteen months have left no lingering doubt: Gitmo is safer and less abusive than any detention facility anywhere in the United States, military or civilian. The conclusion by Lieutenant General Randall Schmidt and Brigadier General John Furlow in a 2005 report commissioned by the Defense Department was incontrovertible:
‘No torture occurred.’” (emphasis supplied).
GITMO visitors also agree that those in charge have gone out of their way to accommodate the religious sensibilities of the prisoners. I know of no one — at least no one who has visited GITMO — who disagrees with this assessment. Therefore, the only questions that have any relevance to its continued operation are: (1) Does its very existence, as Obama has stated, somehow cast a shadow over American character; (2) or has it, as Obama also suggested, somehow served as a terrorist recruiting tool; and/or (3) did something improper (i.e. not in keeping with whatever rules obtain for the treatment of its inhabitants) take place in the course of operating the facility? To me the answers are clear — NO, NO, and NO!!
The facility, notwithstanding the customary and inappropriate outrage of the left, has done nothing to our character. And, of course, the people who might take offense from GITMO were already offended (can’t we ever get over this adolescent and idiotic need to be liked; hell, if you are doing the right thing, you’re bound to offend someone — our leaders need to concern themselves with the safety of our country, not our popularity abroad). And where our safety cannot be reconciled with the bruised feelings of some of our supposed friends and allies, that’s too damn bad! By the way, as I have often noted (and will expand upon in the future), America hating has been around almost as long as America. It springs mainly from envy — we are the world’s only super power, and while this will change in the not too distant future (China is gaining on us), right now we are it. Moreover, these feelings of antipathy only last until they need us — then they like us again! And, by the way, only very insecure, very infantile, and/or very ignorant people are consumed by the need to be loved - get over it; it’s no way to run a life, no less a country. We got where we are by hard work via the free enterprise system. We achieved, we accomplished, and we succeeded. The left always makes it sound like our prosperity is somehow an ill gotten gain, that every prosperous person or company has gotten there by thievery, rather than hard work. Granted, there are some who either inherited their wealth (like Ted Kennedy) or married it (like John Kerry), but most successful Americans have done it the old fashioned way — they earned it!
As far as GITMO serving as a recruitment tool for terrorists, not only does Obama provide no support for this rather mindless assertion, but the facts do not provide any. Unless, of course, what Obama is suggesting is that GITMO is so pleasant - that its inmates live so much better and more comfortable lives in captivity there - that terrorist recruits are signing on in the hope of being captured and sent there (just kidding, of course, but, on a serious note, let me assure you that the average GITMO detainee lives a 1,000% more comfortable a life than his brethren in the hills of Afghanistan or Pakistan). Actually, the alternative that Obama is proposing — incarceration in supermax prisons inside the U.S. - is a far more effective recruiting tool, and there is abundant evidence to support that, i.e. that Islam has been incredibly effective in recruiting converts inside of our prison system (just Google this topic and discover how well they have done in this forum).
As far as improprieties are concerned, other than the water boarding fuss — which is much ado about nothing — not only have there been none, no one has asserted that there have been. Indeed, as noted, everyone who has actually visited the facility has concluded that it is one of the finest penal facilities that they have seen.
Then why close it? It is on an island, outside the United States; at a very safe distance from the U.S.; the prisoners are treated better than most of our prison inmates (for which treatment they reward their guards by throwing urine and feces at them, and/or attacking them when they get the chance — with no retaliatory response from their guards); they are well fed (some prisoners, according to Herman, have “nearly doubled their weight” while in captivity — on their 4,000 calorie-a-day diet), so what’s wrong with this picture? How could the U.S. be better safeguarded from the errant behavior of these barbarians? In short, if it ain’t broke, why change it?
No, this whole thing is merely an effort to engage in mindless Bush bashing, and, in so doing, it is diverting us from what seems to me like the more pressing problems of a global economic melt down and a gathering terrorist threat as our enemies nuclearize themselves. In short, our survival is at stake. That being the case — and let me assure you that that is the case - leave GITMO alone, and get down to the more serious business at hand! And that’s not just my opinion; that’s the way it is — check it out!