
No One Reads Kafka At Gitmo - nqureshi
https://medium.com/editors-picks/6076fd7f2500
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jacquesm
The fact that Guantanamo still exists is an absolute blight on Americas
reputation and the cost of that will resonate for many many years into the
future even if it were disbanded today (which it really should be). Obama
claims his hands are tied but to me that smacks of a lack of resolve, he has
several options at his disposal (such as threatening to resign if congress
won't bend on this or playing hardball in return on every other subject). It's
a pity that America is so tied to the 4 year regimen for elections and that
the president does not have a direct way to call for earlier elections (as far
as I know).

~~~
VLM
"Obama claims his hands are tied"

Its a pity he's not Commander in Chief of the military. Then he could issue
orders to soldiers in charge of a military facility. Perhaps whoever is the
Commander in Chief should step forward and solve the problem.

I am well aware of the true arguments that he would be unable to defund or
outright eliminate the facility, Congress would have to do that. It is WELL
within his ability to, say, directly order all prisoners released, or order
all troops to leave the facility and no troops to re-enter the facility.

~~~
MichaelSalib
_It is WELL within his ability to, say, directly order all prisoners released_

Released where? To Cuba? Into the sea?

If you want to release people, you need to send them someplace. Congress has
banned the government from sending them to the US. You can't send them to
other countries because those countries won't take them. So...where do they
go?

 _or order all troops to leave the facility and no troops to re-enter the
facility._

How do the prisoners eat after the US Navy leaves?

~~~
jessaustin
_Released where? To Cuba? Into the sea?_

Most of the men abducted to Guantanamo have been released. All of those went
_somewhere_. Most just went home, although some went to more colorful locales
like Palau and Albania, particularly if they had been abducted while abroad so
their native land had some excuse not to accept their return. This isn't
surprising, since the vast majority of these men were not "combatants" and had
little connection to AQ or any other terrorist organization. The "recidivism"
of released abductees has been calculated at 4%, which is such a mind-
blowingly low number that it speaks more to the indiscriminate nature of the
abductions rather than the rehabilitational effectiveness of Guantanamo.

Besides, what's your brilliant solution? Maintain this obscenity until the
last abductee dies of old age in about 60 years? Thanks for reminding us of
the typical practicality of status quo Beltway-insider conventional wisdom.

~~~
rayiner
> Most of the men abducted to Guantanamo have been released.

Yes, they were either tried or sent back to their home countries. The ones
that are left are the ones that no state is willing to host a trial for (not
trying Guantanamo detainees in Alexandria became a political issue in Virginia
state politics recently), or whose home countries don't want them back. What
do you do with them?

~~~
arethuza
I think the decent thing to do would be to give everyone not convicted of an
offense US citizenship and a chunk of money by way of compensation.

Of course, that's not going to happen....

~~~
rayiner
Right, but the President and Congress are not elected to do the "decent thing"
but rather to implement the will of the people. When the Senate voted to block
transfers from Guantanamo to the U.S. by 98-0, that suggests that they
understood that the political will in the U.S. was strongly against such an
action.

~~~
arethuza
I apologize - I didn't know that had explicitly been blocked.

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jscheel
In the article, Crabapple describes Guantanamo as "a factory consuming money,
morals, and decades of human life." The counterpoint that governments (plural,
not just the US) are making is that Guantanamo is now a factory for seething
hatred that, given the opportunity, would produce new, fanatical warriors for
violent jihad. No country wants to take these men on because of this perceived
risk. Honestly, given the nature of indefinite detention, most humans probably
would harbor a deep-seated hatred for their captors. I'm not saying it's
right, but that's the other side of the argument.

~~~
asgard1024
And it's a pretty stupid argument as they come. First of all, where is the
evidence that "Guantanamo is now a factory for seething hatred", I mean, in
its prisoners? I don't think there is any evidence for that based on behavior
of political prisoners around the world. Sure, they may have hatred, but they
are I think quite unlikely to incite more violence.

Second, even if what you say is true, U.S. (government) created them. They are
responsible to take care of them, for better or worse. And by "taking care" I
mean giving them freedom and citizenship, if they are unable to return them to
their home countries (in most cases unlikely, as they have families there).

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bhauer
I only skimmed this, so I apologize if my sense of it is woefully off mark.

I just wanted to say that my fleeting thought was that this reads like one of
those odd reports from wealthy fringe tourists who have paid the North Korean
regime to witness a choreographed tour of their country-sized Potemkin village
(something I find contemptible, but I'll put that aside). The amount of
procedure invoked by the Gitmo staff and the strictness of the touring
directly reminded me of reading an incredulous and boggled report from a
visitor to Pyongyang.

If this read is even remotely valid, it's simultaneously alarming that we have
something that elicits a similar emotional response in me _and_ also
reassuring that our worst is but a diminutive slice of an island in the
Atlantic. However, the alarmist in me worries that our mainland is inching
closer and closer to the unthinkable.

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FrankenPC
What I find interesting about America is the LACK of a Siberia equivalent
incarceration system. In other words, why not just make these people
disappear? probably because America is so absolutely in love with war
profiteering that every single prisoner is politically valuable. I've got $164
million reasons/year why they are still incarcerated. At this point I don't
see how anyone could argue that corporate lobbying isn't at the crux of all
this.

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beloch
Why is the Star Trek geek in me reminded of Cardassians?

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jessaustin
_Ayn Rand shares shelves with Tintin, Eli Weisel and Twilight.... Banned are
books with... anti-establishment ideas._

Poor Ayn Rand.

Actually, I wonder if they have _The Fifth Head of Cerberus_? That's just as
much a trip as _The Trial_ , and the last novella, "V.R.T.", would really
speak to the abductees at Guantanamo. I'm not sure how much Wolfe has been
translated to Pashto, however.

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PhrosTT
I guess this relates to technology since it's on medium?

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quantumpotato_
Maybe we should send some Kafka.

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drderidder
What an article. I think the legacy of Guantanamo will haunt America forever.

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616c
I am sure not many people are reading the Quran either.

~~~
AimHere
It's likely they all are.

If you read the article, the Koran is one of the items pre-stocked in the
empty cells alongside toiletries, waste paper bin and a prayer cap.

~~~
616c
It was a sarcastic quip. I read the article.

