June 11, 2009
Since when did America become the Land of the Free, Home of the Cowards? At what point did we decide our system of Justice was completely substandard and not to be trusted? And why is it that our so-called elected leaders are leading the retreat into cowardice?
I’m speaking of people such as Chicago state Senator Marlin Stutzman (R), Oklahoma state Senator Randy Brogdon (R), former Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius (D) , and Lawmakers of all political parties in Oklahoma, South Carolina, Colorado, Georgia, and California, who are all protesting the idea of bringing some of the 240 people currently being detained in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (Gitmo).
These “detainees” (not Prisoners) are people who may or may not have done anything to be imprisoned for. As far as I know, the people being held there have not been charged with anything despite being held for years — which is why they are called detainees. Such was the case for the recently released Mohammed El Gharani, who was held at Gitmo for more than 7 years, from the time he was a teenager in 2001, and freed just this week when it was evident that he had done nothing wrong, nothing more than attending his church when it was raided by Pakistani soldiers.
I’m sure that some of these detainees are certainly dangerous criminals who must be brought to justice, and ALL of them must be held to American standards of justice since it was the United States who are holding them because they were captured for specific reasons. We already have over 350 terrorists in federal U.S. prisons now, and none of them have escaped. According to data provided by Traci L. Billingsley, spokeswoman for the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, federal facilities on American soil currently house 216 international terrorists and 139 domestic terrorists. Some of these miscreants have been locked up here since the early 1990s. None of them has escaped. At the most secure prisons, nobody has ever escaped, period.*
Tell me, politicians, what are you afraid of? Why are you so worried about housing and trying these people? Do you seriously think that they’ll get off on a “technicality,” or that they will be paroled and set free to wander around our country? Do you really think that, in the unlikely event that a convicted terrorist does actually escape, there won’t be a mob of Salt-Of-The-Earth Americans tracking that person down before any damage can be done? After what the passengers of United Airlines Flight 93 did on 9/11, there is no way that true terrorists can feel comfortable carrying out an attack against our beloved country on our own soil … but you seem to think we’re all a bunch of pussies who can’t handle really bad guys. Why are you being such fear-mongerers, as if we’re little kids whom you don’t trust to cross the street?
Seems to me we’ve done a pretty good job for the past 200 years or so. Are you sure you want to start wimping out now? If so, then you don’t represent me, or the country I love. If you are really such a coward, then you should prepare to be fired come next election cycle.
