Guantanamo Suicides

[Chinahand]

I just don't believe how the Pentagon et al are reacting to the suicides at Guantanamo. It was originally called an act of warfare and now the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy is calling it a Public relations move. CLICKY. This may play well on Fox TV, but the whole way it’s being handled smacks to me of so much Gung ho insensitivity and naivety.

 

I believe that the vast majority of people are going to be concerned by these deaths. For most simply out of distaste over what Guantanamo is: a legal black hole where the US is dumping those it believes are a threat to it. There are arguments that could justify this, but the way the Pentagon has put it into practice has turned it into a public relations and legal disaster. Not even Tony Blair will defend it!!!!

 

In the Muslim world hundreds of thousands and likely millions of people will see the suicides as motivated by despair and an attempt by the powerless to escape their imprisonment. This taps directly into the sympathy suicide bombers do genuinely have in the Middle East where the argument goes: we don’t have tanks, artillery and fighter planes to strike back, therefore we use our bodies.

 

I in no way support that argument, but it is precisely for that reason that I had expected the US Public Relations response to something like this to attempt to reduce sympathy for the suicides. I think the American response totally fails to do this and will come over terribly to the Arab street. Another own goal.

[VinnieK]

I suspect that the authorities were attempting to deflect wider charges of mistreatment resulting in the suicides, rather than being wilfully insensitive, but, even so, the idea that anyone would accept their description as "acts of war" is astonishingly naive.

[Alias]

Insensitive and ploying upon peoples' gut reactions of Guantanamo as a prison for terrorists. These people see no future - they have been locked up for years, allegedly abused, and presently there is little chance of them seeing a trial, fair or not.

[haX0red_Account]

who cares? I don't! It's not as if we're really gonna be targets now is it? Anyway, you always hear after suicide bombings that suicide is a big sin in islam and really frowned upon so....?

[joeyconcrete]

The American administration is a bit of a joke. It seems lately they're seemingly pissing off the Arab nations no end. It's obvious the suicides were a way of ending their suffering, afterall, they couldnt starve themself and as human rights people put it - they're held with no specific charge and no light at the end of the tunnel (even if it was a life sentance). To be honest, I can't blame them. If they are murdering terrorists, then fair enough, but at least prove it in a court.