From the Washington Post and the AP:
Cheney said yesterday that the administration has no plans to close the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, as some prominent Democrats have recommended, but other Republicans said that reports of mistreatment of prisoners there have made the prison a growing global liability.
Additional information about aggressive interrogation tactics at Guantánamo surfaced yesterday, which could heighten the debate.
In remarks to be broadcast today on Fox News, Cheney said the administration was reviewing its options at the prison “on a continuous basis.” But he defended its record, saying, “The important thing here to understand is that the people that are at Guantánamo are bad people.”
But Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb. said the situation in Guantánamo is one reason why the United States is “losing the image war around the world,” and suggested closing the prison could help.
“It’s identifiable with, for right or wrong, a part of America that people in the world believe is a power, an empire that pushes people around; we do it our way, we don’t live up to our commitments to multilateral institutions,” Hagel told CNN’s “Late Edition.”
Uh huh. Well, by all means, let’s run the country’s affairs based on the perceptions of a mass of western European snobs and the Muslim street, all of whom have been suckled for years on a steady diet of anti-Americanism dripped into their infantile maws by the leftist media/academy tit and/or by opportunistic politicians seeking to deflect onto the most successful experiment in self-governance the world has ever known the flaws inherent in their own governments and govermental systems.
Really. Let’s do it. Because where “image” is concerned, it is far more important to be loved by the ignorant than to be hated by the despotic, who, let’s face it, tend to be much smaller in number. Or, to put it in more concrete terms—sure, by closing Gitmo we’d be showing political weakness and handing a tremendous victory to our enemies and their enablers (who wish to see American “arrogance” weakened moreso than they do Islamic terrorism repelled), but so what? It will appear as though we’re listening.
And that’s what’s important to the hideously self-righteous. It’s a simple calculus for them, really: the boost to one’s esteem garnered from sanctimoniously browbeating the US trumps the threat of being killed in a terrorist attack (which is statistically unlikely), or subsumed by the sword of Islam (which won’t happen in our lifetime, most likely—and really, fuck the kids and the grand kids, right? because we’ll all be dead, anyway).
Is it any wonder why Al Qaeda talks at length about exploiting our political divisions and appealing to our sense of sanctimony? Of course not. Because what they recognize is that our will to fight is consistently doing battle with our desire to be liked.
And politicians like Chuck Hagel and Jimmy Carter and Nancy Pelosi are always there to step in and gin up the “dissent” to capitalize on the kind of cheap and easy grace one gets by standing in front of the world’s cameras and advocating for the underdog—even when that underdog happens to be a cabal of doomsday terrorists whose only goal is to destroy the west and force the spread of Islamic fundamentalism throughout the world.
I heard that as an alternative to shutting it down, they’re planning on bringing in Bill Murray as a zany counselor whose madcap hijinks will simultaneously subvert authority and encourage high achievement.
Oderint dum Metuant.
Hey, this ties in nicely with the Machiavelli post, huh?
Q: Is it better to be loved or feared?
A: Loved is better, but feared is safer.
At least, it’s unlikely for the moment now.
Absolutely true Jeff.. Great line. Up here in Seattle, this the attitude I hear expressed everyday.. Personally, I’m more of a “Grab ‘em by the balls and their hearts and minds will follow..” kinda guy.
Image is Nothing
Thirst for an ‘08 Presidential Nomination is Everything
Obey Your Thirst!
Oderint dum Metuant, indeed.
The spread of Islamic… what?
Well if you’re looking at world domination it’s better to be hated and feared right?
And human rights… fuck ‘em … those guys deserve the humiliation right? Yeah… just as long as some lackey is doing it, not me, while I sip my pepsi and watch Fox news in my underwear.
damn goldstein. Huzzah!
Jeff, you forgot something with this “Sprite” post. Now,
Show ‘em my motto!
Maybe we’d be better served to grant the detainees full US citizenship and then actually torture and kill them. Myanmar, China, Sudan, Cuba, Syria, and Chile – to mention just a few – all get a free pass on grievous offenses to their own citizenry; maybe we should try that instead. Then the left and the media (but I repeat myself) could begin to focus on the real issues of the day, like the heart-wrenching story of how Michael Jackson plans to cope with the loss of his Neverland ranch/pederast compound.
Koran micturation merits a thousand times more media than the rape and murder of tens of thousands in Sudan, so we’re clearly losing the PR campaign. Since we’ve got folks like Sean Penn serving a lifetime appointment as apologist for Saddam and Ted Turner shilling endlessly for Castro, both of whom operate(d) true Gulags in their own countries, maybe patriating and then cruelly executing the detainees would calm the media and make us friends in Hollywood. What worked for Stalin and Pol Pot could work here, is all I’m saying.
Just a thought. A very stupid thought.
But, uh…YOU WATCH FOX NEWS IN YOUR UNDERWEAR!
NO BLOOD FOR OILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!
Ya know, I must confess something.
I’ve never watched Fox News. I just get all my news from print and the ‘net.
Does this mean I have to turn in my Karl Rove Secret Decoder Ring? I do like to watch TV in my underwear, however, so do I get points for that?
(Oh, and the “torture”? Sounds a lot like Hell Week at a fraternity in the Midwest or the South. Except frat pledges generally don’t get chicks in khakis rubbing their funbags against them. If this is torture, we really aren’t trying, are we now?)
oorgo, us Rethugs are all boycotting Pepsi because of that unpatriotic commencement speech their CFO gave. Try to keep up.
the heart-wrenching story of how Michael Jackson plans to cope with the loss of his Neverland ranch/pederast compound.
Hey, that gives me an idea—Let’s Transfer all the Gitmo prisoners to Neverland. Once they’ve talked, as a reward we’ll send them back to Gitmo.
One of your best, Jeff.
The solution is to direct soldiers in the field that taking prisoners is frowned upon.
wow… amazing comebacks all around! Yay!
Apparently there is no conversation anymore, simply mockery and name calling.
Oh wait, Oorgo, you mean you expected a reasoned response to your suggestion that we’re all sitting around in our underwear sipping Pepsi, watching Fox News, and rooting for our armed proxies to violate the human rights of poor little brown folk?
Okay. Here you go, then:
That is not the case. And the very suggestions shows you to be a shallow, partisan sniper (and a poor one, I might add) who is unwilling to address the points made in my post that argue why shutting down Gitmo would be a mistake.
Now. Let me suggest to you that should you ever in the future wish to initiate a “conversation,” you won’t begin it with the very “mockery and name calling” you are so eager to see in others but cannot seem to recognize in yourself.
I guess I started the mockery though didn’t I? Damn… who put so much dog shit on this foot in my mouth.
Wow. I mean, there are some in the far-right, delinking blogosphere who don’t think Jeff is serious enough to be read everyday, but on the war on terror, no one is more serious than Jeff.
Jeff, you may mock Christy Lane all you want if you occasionally give us posts like these.
Recognizing, of course, that you do not need my approval, sanction, or blessing.
To the right side of the blgosphere I say: Let Jeff be Jeff!
“And human rights… fuck ‘em …”
Yeah, pretty much works for me. Any American-killing jihadi doesn’t deserve “rights” in my estimation.
But this stink about shutting down Gitmo isn’t about human rights. It’s either a continuation of the left’s campaign to undermine the war effort to damage the evil Bushco or appeasement straight up or both. Just because a couple of repubs have joined the chorus makes not a whit of difference.
Its probably just me but I firmly believe that Al Queda terrorists have crossed the line from human to animal and should be treated the same way we’d treat a rabid dog. What’s human rights to someone who is only peripherally human?
The New Republic does a great job of debunking Hagel’s backbone-free maverick image today. Not that I read liberal stuff, of course, I just heard about it.
if:
1) combatants in a battle who are taken prisoner and were fighting without uniforms or an organized chain of command have no Geneva convention rights (put another way, are war criminals)
2) we wish to strengthen, rather than weaken, the Geneva convention (provide disincentives for committing war crimes)
then:
we should proceed with military tribunals and execute anyone found guilty.
what’s taking so bloody long?