Decent, civilized nations have two basic alternatives in the war on terror:
1. Kill the terrorists.
2. Let them continue to kill us.
This past week, three terrorists being detained at Guantanamo, frustrated that they were not free to pursue option #2, and even more frustrated that America was too humane to select option #1 after having captured them alive, invented their own option #3: Kill themselves.
Now a segment of the U.S. and world community -- aided and abetted by what used to be the newspaper of record, the New York Times -- is attempting to turn these three suicides into the equivalent of option #1, screaming that America drove these poor long-suffering jihadists to their deaths. Nonsense.
Jed Babbin deals a fearsome blow to those shedding crocodile tears over suicides at Guantanamo and demanding that the prison for enemy combatants be shut down in "No Alternative to Gitmo" at RealClearPolitics.com:
"Every inmate at Gitmo has had his case reviewed by an administrative board annually, and those who weren't deemed dangerous or of further intelligence value have been released, or will soon be. What remains are the worst and most dangerous.
To the drama queens of the New York Times editorial page, the deaths were, "...the inevitable result of creating a netherworld of despair beyond the laws of civilized nations, where men were to be held without any hope of decent treatment, impartial justice or, in so many cases, even eventual release." Baloney. RAdm. Harry Harris - Joint Task Force GTMO commander - had it right when he said it wasn't an act of desperation, but rather a continuation of their war against us. Two things prove Harris correct. First, these men were dedicated terrorists. They weren't a bunch of Saudi cab drivers picked up at random and imprisoned for our perverse amusement. Dying in a way that hurts the enemy -- us -- is one of their definitions of success. The three suicides were coordinated: same time, same method, and same kind of concealment. These were political acts calculated to create precisely the kind of political pressure to close Gitmo now coming from terrorist apologists here, in the UN and in Europe.
Second, and something the "human rights" lobby doesn't want you to know, is that prison suicides are both unavoidable and not all that rare. According to the latest Bureau of Justice statistics, an average of 43 prisoners out of every 100,000 in American state jails committed suicide in 2003. In state prisons, the number was 16 per 100,000. There have been about 800 people held for various periods at Gitmo and many have attempted suicide. That more haven't killed themselves is a testament to the humanity and dedication of the American soldiers, sailors and marines serving there. There's no reason to believe that the conditions at Gitmo, or the treatment of the prisoners there, has anything to do with these suicides. But that does nothing to dissuade people from condemning Gitmo. Tony Blair evidenced the European attitude by calling the three suicides "a sad incident." What is sadder - and much more dangerous -- is the complete unreality that clouds the European view of terrorism."
It's worth your time to read it all.
Yes, of course any suicide is sad. Always. But even sadder than suicide is the kind of deep moral corruption that allows someone to even think about joining a jihad for the express purpose of deliberately killing innocent non-combatant men, women and children.
For example, one of the three detainees who killed himself, Yassar Talal Al-Zahrani, age 22, was described as "a front-line fighter for the Taliban." "Zahrani facilitated weapons purchases for Taliban offensives against US and Coalition forces. He was captured by Afghan anti-Taliban forces and participated in the Afghan prison uprising in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan which resulted in the death of CIA officer Johnny Michael Spann."
Remember the Taliban? Remember how it shot innocent civilians publicly in soccer stadiums? There's so much we could take a moment to remember about the Taliban -- but let's not.
We can say this much about these suicides: At least these three detainees killed only themselves in the end. If Guantanamo didn't exist, God only knows how many innocent men, women and children they would have deliberately murdered.
That they did not end up taking the lives of innocent civilians after their capture is no accident, no lucky fluke, and certainly no evidence that they were harmless or of good character. They took no others lives along with their own only because they could not.
It reminds me of a trip I took to the visiting room at California's death row at San Quentin. You'd be amazed at how polite all the inmates are while they are in the visiting room. They greet their guests with the aplomb of senior partners of law firms. They're extremely polite -- while confined in a maximum security prison. They seem downright harmless -- under those limiting conditions.
America's policy of indefinitely detaining jihadists who are caught in the act of attempting to kill us or our allies is both reasonable and humane. A mentally stable person of good character and strong religious faith can usually handle indefinite detention. (Think Nelson Mandela. Where there is life there is hope, after all.)
On the other hand, a person of extremely bad moral character and a venemous, burning desire to kill someone, or at least to give his enemy a black eye -- maybe not. America is doing its best under difficult circumstances. If we remove the option of indefinitely holding enemy combatants, where does that leave us? Summarily execute them on the battlefield or let them go to kill again. (Or hold hundreds or thousands of prohibitively expensive trials during wartime, giving each enemy combatant his own personal public stage for propaganda and worse -- what nation on earth has ever done such a foolish thing?)
Sure. Great options -- if you want every decent, civilized nation to collapse, leaving the world to be run by murderous thugs, terrorists and tyrants.
Those who are shedding tears over these detainees need to get a grip. This is a war begun by murderous jihadists, not an idle game. Guantanamo is a prison for dangerous enemy combatants, not a summer camp for troubled youth.
___________________________________
Among others commenting intelligently on Guantanamo and the suicide stunt are Captain's Quarters, Michelle Malkin, Vent, Stop the ACLU and Right on the Right.
gina,
you need to get a job speaking for bush.
not the tony snow job.
i mean actually doing the speaking for bush.
Posted by: louielouie | June 15, 2006 at 08:29 PM