The first is that the Congressmen are convinced that the general public doesn’t want any ex-detainee neighbors. A few local officials in communities dependent on prison money are bucking that, for obvious reasons. That doesn’t change the Congressmen’s feel for want the general public wants.

The second is that in the beginning there were undoubtedly some ordinary jihadi foot soldiers among the detainees. Many have been repatriated. How the remaining detainees feel toward us can be imagined. We are assured that the remaining detainees are hard core enemies. Given the general bungling of the Bush administration, who knows?

My third observation is your use of your term, “as the law sentences them.” As they are considered “unlawful combatants,” in some sort of legal limbo, I have no idea what law really applies. I am sure that the application of American legal system to these men will result in at least some being released among the rest of us. I think the public sees and believes this and resents the failure of nerve on the part of their government.

The Bush administration spent a great deal of money and effort to focus public antipathy to our Islamic foes. It’s asking a great deal of that some public to now view them as ordinary legal defendants in court, just like all the petty American career criminals the government handles so well.

I’m serious about paroling them to fight or run another day. After all, many of them could have been sent to other countries but for ACLU complaints that the receiving governments might be mean to them. This situation is a Gordian knot of legal nonsense and the best solution is the simplest.

Beyond that bit of truth is a question built into your statement – if we don’t want Gitmo detainees on American soil, is that because they were not ALL terrorists before they were illegally held at Gitmo, but may very well be now?

Jake

Now the idea of declaring war on terror was a stupid idea. The stupidity was compounded by creating a legally indefensible new class of prisoners. It should have been obvious from the beginning that the American legal system would eventually manufacture rights and privileges for these people. Given that we are stumbling around in a clash of civilizations that may take centuries, the whole business of prisoners of war is a nonsense. Can we hold these characters for two hundred years?

As I said at another post, the best policy would be to take the parole of these buggers and turn them loose somewhere in the Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Then if they break their parole and attack, we have the option of killing them.

Jake