When does this war end, draginol? When violence no longer exists and world peace reigns supreme? After all, it's a "war on terror"; all we need to do is redefine terror, and we've given these people a life sentence without benefit of trial, without due process. That's the problem with a "war" on an ideology; it CAN'T be won.

Do we give these people due process, do we give them trial by jury? In my opinion, the answer is, emphatically YES, because we ARE Americans, we ARE the greatest nation on the earth, and because the ideals we hold dear ARE noble and just. Our founding fathers held human rights to be INALIENABLE (Yes, I know that the phrase doesn't appear in the Constitution, but the Declaration IS a foundation document that helps to understand the mindset of the founding fathers).

Yes, most of these men were captured on the battlefield. But are all of them terorists, or were some of them simply defending their homeland, the same way you or I would if we were being invaded? Iraq may not be perfect, but to them it is their homeland, their nation. Do we villainize and give them life sentences for doing what we would do in a similar situation?

Give these people due process. Give them fair trials. And let the chips fall where they may. Anything less IS inhuman, it demeans us as a nation, and it makes the criticism of outsiders just and reasonable.

most of these people are from the battlefield Afghanistan not Iraq

if you could count on their word. you could get them to promise to go to their home countries and not become terrorists again. that is of course a big IF.

and i believe that the ones that were only fighting to defend their country have been released.

Gid, I don't know if you're still mad at me but I agree with everything you wrote on this issue.

We need to try these people and if guilty execute them. Why is Bush keeping them in Jail? I want them to be punished and do away with any of them that are guilty of terrorism! WHY should we be spending money to keep them alive?

But unless they are tried, we have no way of knowing that. That's my point here.



still mad about the other issue, but there's no reason we can't agree on other ones.

I would think the most obvious explanation would be for interrogation purposes.  These people should not be given full Constitutional rights, nor access to the public justice system.  It's too flawed as it is to allow a foreign terrorist to be "let off" by a technicality or some liberal leaning judge.

GOOD

CLOSE DOWN GITMO IT IS IMMORAL AND UNAMERICAN!

Gitmo was a sign in how gutless Bush has been in his fight on terrorism. The only reason it was put there was to be outside of US judicial oversite until the matter could be brought to the Supreme Court.
How do we protect our freedoms by giving them up? Torture, Gitmo, illegal wiretaps made legal after the fact and all signed off by our present Attorney General.

Foreign terrorists never had our freedoms.  When we capture these terrorists, I really would like to konw what the liberal solution is?

1. Our founding fathers believed these rights to be inalienable. It would be in our best interests to support those rights for ALL humans, just not the ones we like.

2. I'd like to know what the CONSERVATIVE solution is. Put them on ice till they die? What if we've made a serious mistake in some of these cases? I'm not saying we have, but I AM saying due process is something that should be afforded ALL humans regardless of national identity.

It's pretty glib to write someone off as a "liberal" just because they believe in the sanctity of our national values.

Sure, close Gitmo because of what happened years ago, but leave Iraqis to be tortured and beheaded by the terrorists. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

Well, yes. But those rights end when someone commits a crime against the state or an act of war against our sovereign nation. I'm a compassionate person by nature and my livelihood depends on it, but I can't for the life of me understand why we should pretend these people deserve to be treated like citizens of our country. Same with illegal aliens. Sorry, but it makes no sense to me. If simply behaving in a civilized manner and being nice to everybody was all we needed to do to "win over" the rest of the world, we'd have all been singin' kumbaya long ago. Shit, the amount of money & good will we've flushed down the third world boggles the mind and what has it gotten us? Kofi Anan, among other highly beneficial things.

Like I said, I'm all for compassion where compassion is due, but let's not be terminally naive here.

But did they commit a crime, daiwa? That's been my point all along.

Now, I'll buy the point that because of the sensitive nature of this particular situation, some form of due process other than our standard court procedure may be in order. God knows all we need is Achmed sending subtle attack messages on Court TV. But due process SHOULD be given these detainees, in some form or the other. Holding them indefinitely without trial is against everything we stand for and believe.

gid i believe you missed this part

Hand them over to the government in Afghanistan?

Afghanistan has the death penalty for treason, I am sure.