Wrong as an American.
Wrong as President.
Wrong as a human being
Found today in the news pages
It only took a few words but the impact on the lives of many innocent people will be devastating. We need only have a brief look at the injustice and unfairness of the Afghan system, to appreciate the callousness and short-sightedness of the Obama approach to this matter.
lawsuit on behalf of several prisoners who have been indefinitely
detained for years without trial. The detainees argue that they are not
enemy combatants, and they want a judge to review the evidence against
them and order the military to release them.
Perhaps when the bar of expectations is set as high as it was for Obama, then disappointment is inevitable…even though anything would be better than the past 8 years endured at the hands of the previous administration.
But surely, when it comes to dealing with the execrable situation in the Afghan Justice and Prison system, there’s a better way.
As long as we are propping up the corrupt regime in Kabul and the terribly skewed justice system in the country, then we – whose children are being sacrificed – have the right and the obligation to provide some method of objective review of the prison sentences handed out in Afghanistan.
And it would be so easy.
- Set up an international review committee, with Security Council authority, made up of judges from various U.N. countries, so that Afghan prisoners can get a fair and objective appeal hearing.
When a system consistently violates the basics of international and humanitarian law – as it has done in so many cases, including this one - it cries out for review.
Wrong as an American.
Wrong as President.
Wrong as a human being
But here’s the problem, he’s so popular, there are very few with the courage to confront him.
Let’s hope someone speaks up.
This is plain wrong.
It seems to me that the problem hinges on the fact that the USA is not willing to admit that the detainees actually have rights. Once they admit that, though, they’d then have to start to look at what those rights are.
Pretty soon they’d have to give them trials and actually deciding whether they’re guilty of anything. And then they might have to admit that their little idea of imprisoning hundreds of people and not even treating them as POWs under the Geneva Convention was not exactly a masterstroke.
So I can see why they’re having trouble with this one. You’d think the USA would be strong enough to suck it up, admit they were wrong, and start to sort the mess out. Apparently not.
It’s an odious double standard.
This Obama stunt together with Cheney’s murderous mutterings about what pricks US have to be in foreign policy, do nothing to shorten the line-up at AlQaida recruitment.
Instead they will fire up the revenge machinery within militant Islam, nobody knows if it has abated at all with the change of US leadership.
I don’t see cruel misogynists like Taliban high-fiving each other because Obama got elected even if he admitted to Al Arabiya that he has Muslim relatives.
That line may read fairly well with his supporters but not with those who hate USA because of its brutality overseas.
A frequent question from US (and Israeli) citizens is, “why do they hate us so much?…”
One hand clapping. They never stick around for the answer.
one hand clapping. I like that.
For a man who gained office by talking “diplomacy, I think Obama needs to take a serious look at his modus operandi in Afghanistan.
I sill don’t know what in the hell we are doing there.
I couldn’t agree with both of you more. And, to think I actually had “tears” the night of the “changing of the guard” just shows how gullible I am to the smooth talking promises of change, even though my experience tells me it’s all the same agenda, just a different approach. Now Obama is a convenient front for the evil foreign policies to continue doing the same thing.
Yes, the rot is setting in so fast.
A military pull-out of Iraq….. leaving 50,000 behind?
Are these the “short-straw” losers, who will behave even worse now that the spotight is off them?
I didn’t hear what mission has yet to be accomplished now that WMD, dictators, democracy and womens rights etc. etc. are all sorted out.
What’s left other than profits for warmongers?
Oh…I just answered myself.
Heheh yes you did.
I like the “short straw” reference. Canada holding the shortest straw of all.
I think I might run in the next federal election…what do you think?
Well, L/A about the mission left to accomplish, other than what you mentioned, is probably that they will have to babysit, Shell and Exon, now that they have got them back in after Saddam had nationalized the oil fields and booted them out. So transparent is American Foreign Policy. They also didn’t mention anything about all the private contractors like “Blackwater” who have now changed their name to something else. http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2009/02/brand-new-blackwater-erik-prince-renames-mercenary-firm. There will be many of those organizations running around money laundering, etc forever.