Message #21237

[disallusioned]

I don't have any sympathy for them, and as for using Cuba, I can see a significant reason.  Since they are being held under military laws and are to be tried by the military, approved by our government,  then they should be held at a military facility.  For safety and security, where would you put them?  In the US where feelings could fire up and our own military be called upon to protect them by firing on US citizens?  I don't think so!  And what other country would agree to letting us put terrorists-and the possible threat that comes from housing these prisoners-inside their borders?  So Cuba, being a US base, easily protected, one of the most secure posts farthest away from their home, seems to be the best option to them.

As for holding them without trial:  it's not the first time that America has done this.  Does it make it right?  I really can't say.  In this case I feel that it is right.  Unless I've missed something: we are not stopping them from continuing to follow their religion with the exception of stopping them from killing or being killed, they are being fed as well if not better than they were at home, and are being given shelter that is equal or better than they had in the mountains.  We're treating them well while they are waiting on the military tribunal to meet.  That's definitely a better reason than the US had when we locked up all those of Asian ancestry after Pearl Harbor; taking all the students and families that were in the US, were US citizens, and had done nothing wrong and putting them in concentration camps within our borders.  The US has a history of taking people that are viewed as a threat to national security and locking them up until it is proven they aren't a threat.  And it is an item covered in the Constitution.  Is it right?  Hind-sight is 20/20.  We'll know down the road whether the government's decision to hold these guys in Cuba without trial was the right thing to do or if there was a better way to handle it--all from the benefit of future knowledge.  For now, I support their decision as the best one they could make with the information that I am aware that they have.  I'll just continue to pray that the government be guided in its path and to pray for our military men and women who are protecting these very freedoms we're discussing here.