There are times when even Faux News Fox News is useful, especially considering it’s the official propaganda arm official news station preferred media outlet Stalinist ‘station of the people’ of the Bush régime Bush’s despotism the ruling theocratic plutocracy…
Oh, goddammit! Let’s start over.
There are times when even Fox News is useful, especially considering Tony Snow is now the White House spokesman and hails from that same News Corp. outlet. One can not help but think such a relationship could result in actual news coming from the Murdoch organization.
[BTW, news is different from spin despite the likes of Bill O’Reilly et al.; that’s one “no spin zone” that really is a parody of its own theme]
After the recent SCOTUS decision making clear that even the president is unable to suspend our legal and treaty obligations with regards to prisoners of war — and that the War on Terror™, no matter how unconventional, is still in fact a war — their ruling demanded the application of the Geneva Conventions to everyone, including members of al-Qa’ida. That especially was targeted to those held in our Guantánamo Bay facility.
It would appear the Pentagon finally sent a memo so its staff would understand that POWs actually should get the rights afforded POWs under both domestic and international law. (That’s those pesky little text items that “in theory” bind us to all manner of obligations, unless you’re the U.S. president, or someone he’s empowered to act contrarily, or someone in the same political camp as the ruling party, or some radically religious fundamentalist, or someone with a lot of money, or a lobbyist for people with lots of money and political persuasion, or a politician, or members of the majority now in power, or…)
Oh, goddammit again!
The point is this: There appears to be hope that we will now practice some of the humanity we claim to possess. It’s certainly a measure of what we clearly want to force on others despite our own actions (do as I say…).
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration, called to account by Congress in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling blocking military tribunals, said Tuesday all detainees at Guantanamo Bay and in U.S. military custody everywhere are entitled to protections under the Geneva Conventions.
White House spokesman Tony Snow said the policy, outlined in a new Defense Department memo, reflects the recent 5-3 Supreme Court decision blocking military tribunals set up by President Bush. That decision struck down the tribunals because they did not obey international law and had not been authorized by Congress.
The policy, described in a memo by Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England, appears to reverse the administration’s earlier insistence that the detainees are not prisoners of war and thus not subject to the Geneva protections.
But the administration has insisted that it has always treated the detainees humanely.
*cough* *cough* *wheeze* *cough* *VOMIT!*
I do so humbly apologize. It was that last sentence that got me. Surely there can be no human alive who still believes that.
My, that was a foolish thing to say. Of course there are people so ignorant and blind and partisan that they are unable to see the evidence right before their eyes. After all, I just described religious belief.
It would even seem there are a few Democrats who at least will give lip service to our most sacred ideals regarding justice and the “unalienable Rights” with which “all” humans are “endowed”:
Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the [Senate Judiciary Committee’s] top Democrat, said “kangaroo court procedures” must be changed and any military commissions “should not be set up as a sham. They should be consistent with a high standard of American justice, worth protecting.”
Amen, brother! Preach it!
Yes, poppets, that is what makes America great. We believe—or at least should—that humans are all equal and deserving of human rights. Isn’t that why we hated Russia? And isn’t that why we hate China? Shall I go on?
Either we cherish such notions and beliefs, or we don’t. You can’t claim them for yourself and deny them for others. I’m sorry, but that’s beyond pathetic and despicable.
Even more heartwarming was the apparent return to senses for only some Republicans:
“We’re not going to give the Department of Defense a blank check,” Republican Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the committee chairman, told the hearing.
Echoing the Court, Specter’s comments are essential to this debate. No one deserves a blank check. Are we or are we not bound to practice what we preach? Or is it only necessary to promise Americans the assumed liberties and protections we declare as inherently guaranteed every human?
Yet, the administration is already worming their way out from under the SCOTUS decision:
Steven Bradbury, acting assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, told the Senate hearing that the Bush administration would abide by the Supreme Court’s ruling that a provision of the Geneva Conventions applies.
But he acknowledged that the provision — which requires humane treatment of captured combatants and requires trials with judicial guarantees “recognized as indispensable by civilized people” — is ambiguous and would be hard to interpret.
“The application of common Article 3 will create a degree of uncertainty for those who fight to defend us from terrorist attack,” Bradbury said.
Forgive my mental density, but what is difficult to understand about “humane treatment”? And is not Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions one of the most understood and enforced doctrines of international law? Did we not enforce our rights to such treatment during both Gulf Wars? And, likewise, did we not protest during those same instances any semblance of a violation of said doctrines? Let’s not be entirely and visibly stupid.
Considering our past behavior, let’s just assume that we should treat these people the same way we’d expect to be treated — and have expected in the past — under similar circumstances. It’s actually quite simple to figure out. Only those intent on doing evil will find reason for pause.