Five Years of Gitmo

Five years ago today, the Guantanamo Bay detention center was born.  That's when the first 20 detainees arrived.  Now there are 400, being held without charge.  

The Bush administration pointedly refuses to call these people "prisoners of war," even tho they were supposedly taken in the “war on terror.” To call them prisoners of war would mean they were protected under the Geneva conventions.  Along similar lines, the Bush administration chose Guantanamo Bay, in Cuba, outside of U.S. territory, because bringing them into the U.S. would have conferred upon them certain rights like the right to due process.  As it is, many of these men have been in the harsh conditions of Gitmo for years without charge.  Without being charged, they cannot challenge the lawfulness of their detention in court.  All of which begs the question: if, as our government keeps claiming, we are not doing anything wrong, then what is it that we are trying to hide?

Before Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, the U.S. was a respected leader in human rights.  With a straight face and clean conscience, we could bear witness to injustice in other countries.  Now, we cannot.  

I can't believe how low we've fallen.  I want my country, whom I love, to be able to live up the ideals that we espouse.  To be proud again, instead of defensive.  I want people to once again hear our name with a sense of hope, not fear.

Five years of Gitmo is five too many.  It is time to repent America, to confess our sins and start saying "Hail Mary"s.

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