The Gamut

The recent unpleasantness in the Iraqi prisons gave me a stray thought which I nursed until it became a full on strategy. Now we need to get this to the Kerry camp somehow. He needs to stump on this. Here it is:

Resentment in the middle east is at an all-time high as a result of Abu Ghraib. We can hardly blame them. The apparent hypocrisy between our president’s rhetoric and the actions of our military and the contractors in their charge cannot be missed. But it is not as if this came completely out of left field. The international Red Cross and other human rights groups including the ACLU have been calling on this administration to treat Muslim prisoners fairly for close to two years.

For now, all eyes are on Iraq. But as recently as last month, our courts were considering the question of habeus corpus concerning our detainees on Guantanimo Bay in Cuba. This administration has the opportunity to make not-a-symbolic-gesture, but a true show of good faith by granting our prisoners from Afghanistan a full and transparent trial before an international tribunal.

The argument that the administration used before the supreme court was that congress had put this question of how these men would eventually be tried at the president’s discretion. Now, whether or not that argument is even valid is not the point I am addressing. The point is simply this. Grant them a trial. Be Solomon-like. Lead by example. Show the Arab world in a real and tangible way that America does not marginalize them. It’s been the right thing to do all along. But now it is also the politically wise thing to do as well.

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