Monday, December 14, 2009

How does that work?

It just wouldn't have been a news week if we didn't have a group of fear mongering Republicans warning that giving Guantanamo prisoners a fair trial is wrong and will lead to a nuclear attack on the United States. The Constitution can't be trusted to keep us safe and should be shelved any time we're scared, goes their argument, and we should be scared right now!! Steve King (R-IA) was given the honor of making the predictable attack on the judicial branch. Activist judges, he warned, would make activist decisions to actively turn terrorists loose on the streets of your home town!! Actively. In case we might miss the point that Judges are the primary threat to our safety, they held their press conference in front of the Supreme Court and festooned their lecterns with the messages, "Protect our homeland" and "Keep terrorists out of America." Trent Franks (R-AZ) got to wave the mushroom cloud. Giving the suspects "a megaphone to speak to the planet ... only hastens the danger" of a nuclear attack.

I'm curious about how that works. Do the terrorists already have nuclear weapons that they're not using? If we give the prisoners a megaphone in the form of a fair trial, will that finally provoke them into using their nuclear arsenal? Or is it that giving the prisoners a fair trial will somehow magically lead to the terrorists gaining nuclear weapons? What is so provocative about a trial? Didn't they know we had these prisoners? Didn't they know the prisoners had been abused? Is there anyone on the planet who doesn't know that? What's the mechanism, what's the cause and effect that leads from trial to mushroom cloud? Can anyone explain this to me?

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