Back to being a terrorist

The Pentagon claims that 61 ex-Guntanamo inmates have returned to terrorism.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said 18 former detainees are confirmed as “returning to the fight” and 43 are suspected of having done in a report issued late in December by the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Morrell declined to provide details such as the identity of the former detainees, why and where they were released or what actions they have taken since leaving U.S. custody.

“This is acts of terrorism. It could be Iraq, Afghanistan, it could be acts of terrorism around the world,” he told reporters.

Morrell said the latest figures, current through December 24, showed an 11 percent recidivism rate, up from 7 percent in a March 2008 report that counted 37 former detainees as suspected or confirmed active militants.

Then we have the human rights groups accusing the Pentagon of fear-mongering with this news. So should we or should we not imprison those suspected of terrorism ? Obviously this Pentagon article is issued in response to President Obama’s promise to close Guantanamo and the fear-mongerers there are all either covering their asses or waiting for an opportunity to bring this up as a “I told you so” when something bad happens in future. It’s pushing the cannon ball into Obama’s court and hoping that it’ll sink his ship. The political games have begun and Ayatollah Cheney/Bush’s gang are now plotting behind the scenes to grab power again. It’s potent stuff and if in future an ex-Guantanamo inmate is caught in a deadly terrorist act, that’s where the blame game starts. It is trying to emulate the Iran hostage taking fiasco that sank Jimmy Carter. Careful, President Obama. In fact in my humble opinion, Ayatollah Cheney/Bush and company are probably the bigger enemies of the state than the Guantanamo inmates. At least we all know where the inmates stand, either they don’t like or they hate America. But Ayatollah Bush/Cheney’s gang are agents within the system, masquerading as patriots, hoping to make America into a monster, all the time firmly believing in their ideology. (Doesn’t it also sound like the other side ?)

I think there is no question that conscience and decent American common sense tells us it’s wrong to hold someone in custody indefinitely without trial. This flies in the face of the constitution and threaten to turn back all the human rights and freedoms that have been won. But in our darkest fears, we would turn a blind eye to acts that will prevent terrorism, no matter how illegal or unconscionable they are. Look at Gaza today, how many Americans have stood up for the Palestinians ? I don’t hear anything, complete silence. This is because of our colored predisposition, we think of Palestinians as suicide bombers and terrorists first rather than as victims regardless of the fact that a majority of them aren’t. We couldn’t care less that more moderate Palestinians will be recruited to the terrorist cause because of the violence. It’s simple. Revenge is the most destructive force on earth. It is the energy feeding terrorism. So the tit-fot-tat will no doubt continue and again, it’ll come back like a cancer refusing to go away but well it’s ok you say, we’ll deal with it as it comes. But the cancer may become suddenly virulent and in moments when the vigilance is let down, it’ll sneak in, it’ll find a way. Americans may not mind now having to live with this necessary evil of having their rights and freedoms increasingly being curtailed. But one day, the security bubble can and will turn against the people it’s supposed to protect.

There is no security more effective than to erase the thought of destroying America from the enemies’ minds. The terrorist leaders must be deprived of an excuse to recruit. This is precisely the rationale for looking at Guantanamo and asking ourselves is it really effective in getting rid of the terrorism cancer or is it contributing to its spread instead. We cannot avoid addressing the main reasons and causes for terrorism, number one being the Palestinian problem. No amount of imprisonment and killing of terrorists or the capture of bin Laden is as effective as a solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. This is the wellspring and ground zero of the modern Islamist terrorist cancer. The cure lies here, not building more prisons.

A lose-lose scenario in Gaza

In this AFP post, Israel is toying with the fate of the world in its hands. Why so ? Simple logic. By Israel’s use of violence and killings as the action of choice to solve problems, they are teaching the Palestinians and the world how it should be done. The Palestinians and Arabs have been eager students of the Israeli way, that violence does in fact pay and violence will in fact work. Of course they have been less competent than Israel in the use of violence thus having to resort to more primitive means like terrorism ala suicide attacks. But they are learning and catching up. They are waiting for opportunities and openings to inflict ever more damage on the world to get its attention. The cycle will never stop. It’s now tit for tat. The world can try to contain them but like a cancer, it’s hard to prevent it from relapsing again. The problem must be nipped in the bud. The Palestinians must be shown a way forward that does not involve the use of violence for this situation to get better. There is no other choice. If they don’t see another way to address their grievances, they will keep coming back to haunt us. The hardliners who only want more destruction and a lose-lose outcome must be stopped on both sides. Israelis must not only discredit Hamas but also its own hardline leaders. They have to show that they can rise above the provocations of the Arab extremists and push for a just solution to the Palestinians otherwise they are just only playing more and more into the mullahs’ hands. The world needs a radical change of attitude towards this problem and there is little that President Obama can do but I’m hoping against hope that he will try something different.