Now we know where perpetuity is

Well thanks to good old team USA we now know where "that danged perpetuity place" is - down in Guantanamo. With the powers that be saying they think they can hold alleged "enemy combatants" in perpetuity, mostly for nothing more than declaring they hate the USA and wish it ill will. I say alleged because you know there never was any trial or due process, and the claim that the prisoners have expressed an enduring hatred of the USA - well if you'd seized during a war, locked up in chains, interogated, maybe even tortued a bit, and then held for years without know what the hell is going on - well just how would you feel towards your captors?

The problem is that somehow the absurbity of this situation does doesn't get through to most Americans so they might give a damn. Most likely because many people believe that Guantanamo is just full of those Iraqi insurgents who are busy killing American soldiers, or Taliban guys who carried out 9/11. Neither of these is true, but your average guy lacks the mental, well how shall I put it, "fidelity", to make the distinction.

What needs to happen is for some foreign power to seize 500 odd Americans and label them as enemy combatants and decide the will hold them in perpetuity. Better make it a foreign power with nukes for good measure, just so Bush doesn't have the easy excuse to start a war over it. How about India, Pakistan, or North Korea or our friends China. Last time I recall any significant number of American military people being held by a foreign was by China at the start of Bush II's reign of terror, and look how badly that turned out. Much ineffectual and inaapropriate huffing and puffing by team Bush that only served to put Chinese-American diplomatic relations back years and required huge amounts of cover up cream (lets call it money and trade concessions) to put right.

So I can only wonder what would happen now if some nuclear power captured a bunch of Americans fighting in their country and did what we're doing to those guys down in Guantanamo. The best thing is that perhaps someone would be able to demonstrate to the low fidelity thinkers amongst us, the plain and simple consequences of pissing on human rights (not even the Koran which seems to be getting better protection than the prisoners themselves). Its called tit for tat chaps and a good number of people find that kind of moral reasoning and logic hard to resist. For a while American could have claimed to have some higher ground but a good number of people, say Howard Zinn for example, might claim it was always smoke and mirrors. Now its plain for all to see - America's message is what is good for our people (Patriot I not withstanding) isn't good enough for the rest of the world - and if you ever cross us may you all rot in perpetuity (providing there's enough room there that is).