I was eight years old, and, in theory, old enough to know that hitting my brother was not okay. Though, I did it anyway even after my mother had blatently told me not to. Of course, I was caught in the action and reprimanded immediatly. But my mother did not hit me to teach me that it is not okay to hit people because that would not be successfull, and, in essence, this is exactly what our country is doing with Guantamo Bay. We capture our enemies and put them in a caged torture chambre so that we can do to them what they did to get themselves into the prison in the first place. Sounds stupid, right? One might argue that they should get a "taste of their own medecine" but what are we teaching people by doing to the criminals what we do not want people to do? I am not arguing, here, that it is our job as a country to teach the criminals of the world about right and wrong becuase it is not. But it is our job to represent ourselves well, and if it is thought that Guantanamo Bay fulfills that duty, then goodbye, USA. Plain and simple: we are stooping to an extremely-low level. I do not understand how we, as a country, can lock people up for the terrible crimes that they have commited, and then commit the same crime against them.
As punishment for my own eight-year old crime, I was sent to my room, to think my actions over. I was not reprimanded with the same wrong that, I, myself commited. That would have been a crime, in and of itself.
2 comments:
Nice post!
I liked the comparison you made of when you were a child! A main issue I have with Gitmo is the fact that we can't necessarily charge these people for "hitting" us. The whole point of Habeas Corpus is to be fair and judge IN COURT whether or not these people did in fact "hit" us in the first place. So, who knows...Maybe President Bush and his Gitmo is just smacking these guys around right in the face.
Great Post Heidi!
I fully agree, not only is it wrong for the U.S.A. to teach people not to do certain things by doing the same thing back, but it is completely hypocritical. The situation in Guantanamo Bay reminds me of a famous death penalty quote,“Why do we kill people who are killing people to show that killing people is wrong?” Both the death penalty and Gitmo are similar problems, and I believe that their should be a differant form of punishment when people do certain things wrong, just as you were sent to your room when you hit your brother.
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