17 years
It was 17 years after WWII when Eichmann was executed for his crimes. That's 17 years that he was held without trial. (For anyone looking up Eichmann, see also "Auschwitz")
Like I said earlier, a little historical context is necessary when we look at Gitmo. We detain American citizens for years for all osrts of various non violent crimes. I believe we can make room for a few deranged homicidal enemy combatants.
The people we have picked up are not selling cookies door to door. In fact we have released and then later recaptured over a dozen detainees. I know it seems unsavory to say we have to hold them indefinitely, what about the rule of law, what about habeas corpus, what about speedy trial, etc....but these are not American citizens with the full legal protection that is granted to an Amercian citizen. These are "enemy combatants" who operate outside of the Geneva Conventions. (They don't wear uniforms, they intentionally target civilians, they hide among civilians....) We have held them for 3-4 years or less. We interrogate, we release some, we hold others.
The pragmatist comes out in me---what do the critics propose we do? We cannot shoot first and ask questions later. We cannot detain combatants for a "long" time. We have to give them special diets, time to pray, copies of their sacred texts....
Why bother picking them up in the first place? Wait a minute....that's the point, isn't it? We should just leave them alone, right? If we just play nice and don't offend the islamo-fascist he won't try to kill us.
This world is ruled by the agressive use of force. It always has been. America doesn't engage her enemies to conquer, or to aquire, she simply protects herself. (Hell, we even rebuild the place after demolishing it, creating something that is not a threat. see also Japan, Germany, the South, Mexico, Russia et al)
Like I said earlier, a little historical context is necessary when we look at Gitmo. We detain American citizens for years for all osrts of various non violent crimes. I believe we can make room for a few deranged homicidal enemy combatants.
The people we have picked up are not selling cookies door to door. In fact we have released and then later recaptured over a dozen detainees. I know it seems unsavory to say we have to hold them indefinitely, what about the rule of law, what about habeas corpus, what about speedy trial, etc....but these are not American citizens with the full legal protection that is granted to an Amercian citizen. These are "enemy combatants" who operate outside of the Geneva Conventions. (They don't wear uniforms, they intentionally target civilians, they hide among civilians....) We have held them for 3-4 years or less. We interrogate, we release some, we hold others.
The pragmatist comes out in me---what do the critics propose we do? We cannot shoot first and ask questions later. We cannot detain combatants for a "long" time. We have to give them special diets, time to pray, copies of their sacred texts....
Why bother picking them up in the first place? Wait a minute....that's the point, isn't it? We should just leave them alone, right? If we just play nice and don't offend the islamo-fascist he won't try to kill us.
This world is ruled by the agressive use of force. It always has been. America doesn't engage her enemies to conquer, or to aquire, she simply protects herself. (Hell, we even rebuild the place after demolishing it, creating something that is not a threat. see also Japan, Germany, the South, Mexico, Russia et al)
posted by djobe at 4:09 PM
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