Of Course It’s Okay When WE Do It!
So it comes to pass that Obama and company, including the the entire MSM complex and all of the “Better Than Thou” folks who railed against Gitmo, drone strikes, black site detention centers, Bush’s “illegal wars, “undeclared wars, “etc. were all all full of excrement.
So now it’s official: United States soldiers have been hunting down al Qaeda affiliates in Somalia. When the White House confirmed earlier this month what has long been an open secret, most of the ensuing chatter focused on the need for greater transparency about the expanding war on terror.
Less discussed was what happens to all those alleged terrorists when they’re captured alive.
One answer can be found here in the dusty Somali port city of Bosaso, where corrugated-metal shacks look as if they might be blown away in the next storm, and summer temperatures easily top 110 degrees. Overcrowded, underfunded, and reeking of urine, the Bosaso Central Prison could make even the most dedicated insurgent regret ever getting into the terrorism business.
What, three hots, a cot, and rec facilities at Gitmo where inhumane but “overcrowded, underfunded, and reeking of urine” is?
When President Barack Obama came into office, he expanded the scope of Central Intelligence Agency and military-drone operations in the Islamic world, while also taking steps to end America’s role in detaining suspects captured overseas in that war. He shut the remaining CIA black site prisons in Europe, and handed over high-value Iraqi detainees to the Iraqi courts. Guantanamo Bay no longer takes new inmates, though it continues to house prisoners who haven’t yet been transferred to other countries.
No, let’s not send the few prisoners we capture to a western nation because those SOB’s in Europe can’t be trusted to treat people humanely. Let’s send them to a place that’s known for its decent treatment of prisoners and its long standing history of protecting human rights. If only we could find someplace like that? Where can it be? I know! Somalia!
In practice, however, Obama’s plan to get America out of the international jailer business means that developing-world prisons have picked up the slack.
And Obama has the nerve to criticize Romeny for “outsourcing” jobs!
As Glenn Reynolds says:
All you people who were playing the have-you-no-decency card under Bush, but who aren’t screaming just as loud now — which is pretty much all of you people who were playing the have-you-no-decency card under Bush — were and are miserable lying hacks. And I thank Obama for making that perfectly clear, at least.
Reynolds is much nicer about it than me.
A game I like to play in politics is to turn the situation around – if given the same circumstances “A” is doing, would the MSM treat “B” the same way?
Of course the answer is usually glaringly obvious.
And considering what these “detainees” want to do to us if given the chance I don’t care what we do to “them” -
And that’s really the problem, isn’t it. We didn’t actually care about the conditions in Gitmo (save that perhaps they were TOO nice), and we don’t care about the conditions in the Somali hell hole either. Because these guys DESERVE it.
The problem is the whining class that was OUTRAGED about Gitmo, but doesn’t have any harsh words for Somali prisons. Why? Because their guy is in charge.
But BOY it must be nice to turn the outrage on and off at will!
Actually Mike, I cared that we treated them humanly at Gitmo and other places. I don’t consider the “harsh” interrogation methods to be torture. I have no problem with keeping them in prison, for lack of a better word, but I think those prisons should be sanitary, prisoners should be fed properly and except for when interrogated they should be treated humanly and get medical attention when needed. I think the Bush admin did all that as a matter of policy. Of course there were abuses like Abu Ghrab but that wasn’t as a matter of policy it was an exception.
What really gets me pissed is when people, either Right or Left, spout off about things like this being immoral and even criminal but only when the other guy does it. Attacking the Bush administration in the manner in which they did only served to hurt the nation for political gain. That’s unconscionable.
Mike – There’s a whole list one could compile to see the differences – such as the homeless – Before – “It’s a disgrace – all because of XXX’s policies” – After – nothing said -
GW Bush – a man of honor, decency and ethics – a flawed man to be sure but… Will be to blame for everything for all of time.
Or at least until the nutjobs blaming him – die. Just so long as we can find a way to stop them from procreating in the meantime.
The simple fact of the matter is that neither Obama, his advisors, nor his supporters are terribly smart.
WINNER!
Christ amighty! Tell me how this is unlike the sanctimonious bull durham spewed forth when Air America was doing its logistics thing in that there southeastern part of the Pacific so many years ago.
We do what we do afield because we realize that the “not doing it” will bring IT to our shores. We do it because it keeps the bad guys so mired in firestorms, that they wonder why they ever thought this possible with us in the first place.
It seems to me that no matter what we do afield, it will always be worth the treasure spent and the cacophony of stupidity babbling forth from it. Let the Socialists in our midst expend themselves in utter pharkin’ stupidity. We The People have heard it all before, and, at some point, will call ‘bullshit’ and start ourselves another game of “Cowboys and Injuns” Let the “Injun” bass turds beware. We’ve had this rodeo before…an’ we dun pretty well
Time to Cowboy up, y’all.