On to less savoury topics... Guantanamo Bay. It's been in the news a bit this week and I've been trying to bring together my thoughts on it. See, the thing that shocks me the most about this place is how the US government is trying to say "hey, we don't have to observe human rights here because it isn't on US soil." As if soil had some magical property of morality.
Hello people, that kind of thing only happens in fantasy books. It is a US facility with US personnel. It wasn't the land that signed the Geneva Convention, it was the nation - the people. Which means that simply by making the decision to send people there it makes it their responsibility. It also means that they are as culpable as if they were in the facility itself.
And if the government claims "we don't know what goes on there..." well then why are they the ones with the power to close it down?
It is shocking the lengths some political people go to because they forget to be... well... people. I find it interesting that while I was reading A Game of Thrones there was quite a relevant quote - not something I often find in fantasy fiction...
"...the man who passes the sentence should swing the sword. If you would take a man's life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. And if you cannot bear to do that, then perhaps the man does not deserve to die."
Of course that is a remarkably simplistic way of looking at things - I suspect that if Rumsfeld, Rice or Bush were to go to the facility they would simply say to themselves 'these men are terrorists. No matter how innocent they look, they would kill you in an instant because they are fanatics.'
How we delude ourselves so easily with our stubborness. Something I'm always working on. :) Because that's the thing about communication, what we see and hear isn't always what is actually happening or being said. Our minds create a kind of filter that we move all that information through - that's how disagreements and arguments often start.
And it is how innocent people end up being lost in a jail that nobody wants to take responsibility for. Or worse, nobody is willing to admit they could be wrong about.
The thing that galls me still is that a nation that spouts on about freedom and God and morality is commiting a heinous act of immorality by keeping such facilities. No amount of positive spin will change the fact. Yes, the US is not as bad as terrorists who kidnap aid workers and behead them. But there is a difference between select individuals kidnapping innocent aid workers and attacking soldiers, and a world power locking people away and then pretty much ignoring them after that.
If anything a facility like Guantanamo creates terrorists. How many innocent muslims have been locked into that place and now harbour a resentment towards the country that stole their freedom and seperated them from their families?
How stupid do you have to be to not see this? And how idiotic is it to then think that you can hold those people there indefinitely. It will break. There will come a point where the US will have no choice but to close Guantanamo down. The issue will be, is it going to be on constructive and peaceful terms, or will it be the releasing of an ongoing problem that will harm the world in general because of the damage done to families and countries.
These kind of heavy-handed tactics have no place in the modern world. Arguing that the terrorists don't play fair is the same as when we were kids and we cry to our parents "but he hit me first!" The trick to defeating terrorism is to remove the things that they hold up as reasons to attack the West.
This is a difficult task, especially because a lot of people in the Middle East live in nations that have not really moved beyond dictatorships, theocracies and monarchies. Because there was no Renaissance and Enlightenment period for these nations they have not had the same philosophical, social and scientific changes that the rest of the world had. I don't feel that the Middle East needs to have democracy - that is something that must happen naturally and not be forced on them. But they do need to move forward socially, and the signs are there. The problem is that some people fear change, or they fear growing into something new.
It is that fear, that fear of loss of their culture as well, that drives many in the Middle East.
Places like Guantanamo Bay and the US' aggressive christian rhetoric do nothing but feed that fear. In other words, the US is making its own demons, and I can't shake the irrational feeling that this is a deliberate act. That there is absolutely no genuine intention of peace, but rather a belief that keeping a war going is beneficial to the US as a nation.
Not really a rational thought - and one that I don't hold personally, except for the occasional thought. :)
Anyhoop, it's time for me to head off! :D Paraparaumu, here I come! :D
Love and Huggles
Conan
Currently Reading:A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
Currently Playing: Fireborn - Rememberance; Unknown Armies - To Go; Mage: The Awakening - Threshold
Mood:Positive, excited but not taking any crap from anyone! (Kidding)
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