McCain needs a 6 month stint at Guantanamo

The Supreme Court just ruled that detainees being held in Guantanamo prison camps have a right to challenge their imprisonment in Federal Courts (it was a 5-4 ruling). This is the right decision and it was long overdue, but not everyone agrees with it. I think the most obvious display of political pandering in the Presidential election is the following statement by John McCain: “The United States Supreme Court rendered a decision yesterday that I think is one of the worst decisions in history". This is coming from a former POW, one who got the crap kicked out him for 5 years, one who until recently, strongly disagreed with the Bush administration's policies at Guantanamo. McCain even advocated shutting down Guantanamo--that is, he did until he decided to sell out his convictions in a lame attempt to pacify that far right radicals. Any thorough examination of the prisoners being held at Guantanamo shows that most of them aren't "high risk", rather, they were scooped up on a battle field and thrown in prison, preferably forever if Bush had his way. They were fighting invading forces, defending their way of life, their families, often times coerced to fight or they would be killed by the Taliban or Al Qaeda. If the US government knocked on my door and said they would kill my family unless I went to fight an invading army, I would fight. Not only that, but for fighting their families get taken care of, so it is difficult to understand how locking these detainees up indefinitely, beating them, and refusing to tell them what the are being charged with is somehow going to keep America safe.

The fact that 4 out of 9 Justices voted in favor of Bush's detainment policy is disturbing, but it is more disturbing to see McCain support indefinite detention. His flip-flopping isn't good for the straight talk express--he's in need of some moral viagra--and the fact that this flip-flopping actually convinces anyone is sad. Imprisonment policies that allow indefinite detention, without ever bringing charges, and without ever showing evidence may seem less threatening when they concern detainees in Cuba, but allowing the government to do things like this might someday apply to detention policies of American citizens. Bush, Cheney, and McCain deserve to spend 6 months in Guantanamo, actually, they should be put there indefinitely and see how that feels.