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"If you haven't found something strange during the
day, it hasn't been much of a day." -- John A. Wheeler
day, it hasn't been much of a day." -- John A. Wheeler
PROVIDING NEWS AND COMMENTARY ON THE
PEOPLE, POLITICS, EVENTS AND ABSURDITIES OF
OUR TIME. SERVED UP WITH ACERBIC WIT, YOU
SHOULD FIND IT QUITE SATISFYING.
PEOPLE, POLITICS, EVENTS AND ABSURDITIES OF
OUR TIME. SERVED UP WITH ACERBIC WIT, YOU
SHOULD FIND IT QUITE SATISFYING.
Going Gonzo In Gitmo
A recent headline in the International Herald Tribune (IHT)
read: "Guantanamo drives prisoners insane, lawyers say."
Different people will respond to such a headline in different
ways. For instance, liberal peacenik types won't be able to get
through the article without an ample supply of Kleenex.
Heartless conservatives on the other hand may read it with
gleeful abandon. And pragmatists may wonder why they
should believe anything lawyers say.
My own personal reaction to the headline is, yeah, and your
point is what exactly? Okay, obviously, the point is to make us
all feel sorry for the poor detainees, all of whom claim to be
guilty of nothing more than having been caught in the wrong
place at the wrong time and been swept up by infidel crusaders
out to conquer their land. But most of us have sense enough to
know better than that.
Anyway, a certain well-known Guantanamo detainee is one of
the focal points of the new insanity claims being made by
lawyers. That would be one Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Yemeni
who once happened to be Osama bin Laden's personal driver
and who could soon become the first detainee to be tried for
war crimes at Gitmo.
Right now, he should be busily working on his defense, but alas,
say his lawyers, he can't because he has been driven insane by
his confinement. He is suicidal, hears voices, has flashbacks,
talks to himself and says the restrictions of his imprisonment
"boil his mind."
Further, in a letter to his lawyers in February, he complained
that, "Conditions are asphalt, excrement and worse. Why, why,
why?"
Well, because, because, because, Salim, you were the personal
driver for the world's most wanted terrorist who is responsible
for the deaths of thousands of innocents. That sorta makes you
an accessory, doesn't it? But why not try and look at the
positive side of your situation? Would you rather have been in
one of the twin towers when they came crashing down because
of your boss' diabolical plan? Or would you rather have been
one of those who leaped from the buildings because they
preferred that to burning alive?
If your mind is boiling right now, it ought to be over the guilt
you should be feeling if you had any sort of normal human
conscience rather than boiling over your personal
confinement. Nonetheless, one of the main assertions in the
IHT article goes like this: "Critics have long asserted that
Guantanamo's climate-controlled isolation is a breeding
ground for insanity."
Don't make me laugh. You wanna talk about a "breeding
ground for insanity?" Then let's talk about the one that
stretches from Morocco in the west to Indonesia in the east and
covers most of what's in between. It's called the Muslim world
and its contribution to the world is radical Islam, which is
synonymous with insanity.
Here in America all it takes is for one religious kook to phone in
a bomb threat to an abortion clinic and the media falls all over
itself declaring that the country is on the brink of take-over by
right-wing, bible-thumping fundamentalists who are going to
take us back to the days of inquisitions and witch trials. But if
mad hatter jihadists are running wild in every corner of the
globe indiscriminately killing innocents in the name of
establishing a new worldwide Islamic caliphate, we're all
expected to be religiously tolerant and culturally sensitive.
If we have been lucky enough to capture several hundred of the
countless multitudes of Islamist nihilists who are out to bring
down Western civilization, then as far as I'm concerned that's a
great thing and I don't really care how despondent or
hallucinatory they become in their Gitmo cells. What I care
about is that they're not out slaughtering great masses of
innocent people in the name of one of the most insane causes to
ever come down the pike.
If Islam is powerful enough to inspire people to
enthusiastically kill themselves and many others in its name,
then it ought to be powerful enough to assuage the mental
anguish of its followers who are unlucky enough to get caught
and imprisoned. They're getting three squares a day, their own
copies of the Koran, prayer mats and signs pointing in the
direction of Mecca. They've got everything they need to
commune with Allah to their hearts' content.
And after all, according to Muslim belief, nothing happens
unless Allah wills it. Therefore, if you are Muslim and you find
yourself sitting in a cell in Guantanamo hearing voices and
with drool running down your chin, guess who wants it that
way?
A recent headline in the International Herald Tribune (IHT)
read: "Guantanamo drives prisoners insane, lawyers say."
Different people will respond to such a headline in different
ways. For instance, liberal peacenik types won't be able to get
through the article without an ample supply of Kleenex.
Heartless conservatives on the other hand may read it with
gleeful abandon. And pragmatists may wonder why they
should believe anything lawyers say.
My own personal reaction to the headline is, yeah, and your
point is what exactly? Okay, obviously, the point is to make us
all feel sorry for the poor detainees, all of whom claim to be
guilty of nothing more than having been caught in the wrong
place at the wrong time and been swept up by infidel crusaders
out to conquer their land. But most of us have sense enough to
know better than that.
Anyway, a certain well-known Guantanamo detainee is one of
the focal points of the new insanity claims being made by
lawyers. That would be one Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Yemeni
who once happened to be Osama bin Laden's personal driver
and who could soon become the first detainee to be tried for
war crimes at Gitmo.
Right now, he should be busily working on his defense, but alas,
say his lawyers, he can't because he has been driven insane by
his confinement. He is suicidal, hears voices, has flashbacks,
talks to himself and says the restrictions of his imprisonment
"boil his mind."
Further, in a letter to his lawyers in February, he complained
that, "Conditions are asphalt, excrement and worse. Why, why,
why?"
Well, because, because, because, Salim, you were the personal
driver for the world's most wanted terrorist who is responsible
for the deaths of thousands of innocents. That sorta makes you
an accessory, doesn't it? But why not try and look at the
positive side of your situation? Would you rather have been in
one of the twin towers when they came crashing down because
of your boss' diabolical plan? Or would you rather have been
one of those who leaped from the buildings because they
preferred that to burning alive?
If your mind is boiling right now, it ought to be over the guilt
you should be feeling if you had any sort of normal human
conscience rather than boiling over your personal
confinement. Nonetheless, one of the main assertions in the
IHT article goes like this: "Critics have long asserted that
Guantanamo's climate-controlled isolation is a breeding
ground for insanity."
Don't make me laugh. You wanna talk about a "breeding
ground for insanity?" Then let's talk about the one that
stretches from Morocco in the west to Indonesia in the east and
covers most of what's in between. It's called the Muslim world
and its contribution to the world is radical Islam, which is
synonymous with insanity.
Here in America all it takes is for one religious kook to phone in
a bomb threat to an abortion clinic and the media falls all over
itself declaring that the country is on the brink of take-over by
right-wing, bible-thumping fundamentalists who are going to
take us back to the days of inquisitions and witch trials. But if
mad hatter jihadists are running wild in every corner of the
globe indiscriminately killing innocents in the name of
establishing a new worldwide Islamic caliphate, we're all
expected to be religiously tolerant and culturally sensitive.
If we have been lucky enough to capture several hundred of the
countless multitudes of Islamist nihilists who are out to bring
down Western civilization, then as far as I'm concerned that's a
great thing and I don't really care how despondent or
hallucinatory they become in their Gitmo cells. What I care
about is that they're not out slaughtering great masses of
innocent people in the name of one of the most insane causes to
ever come down the pike.
If Islam is powerful enough to inspire people to
enthusiastically kill themselves and many others in its name,
then it ought to be powerful enough to assuage the mental
anguish of its followers who are unlucky enough to get caught
and imprisoned. They're getting three squares a day, their own
copies of the Koran, prayer mats and signs pointing in the
direction of Mecca. They've got everything they need to
commune with Allah to their hearts' content.
And after all, according to Muslim belief, nothing happens
unless Allah wills it. Therefore, if you are Muslim and you find
yourself sitting in a cell in Guantanamo hearing voices and
with drool running down your chin, guess who wants it that
way?