When three prisoners at Guantanamo committed suicide in 2006, U.S. officials described it as "an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us" and "a good PR move." Now it looks like we've suffered another attack, as a Yemeni man who'd been imprisoned at Guantanamo for seven years without charges apparently took his own life—"a politically motivated act by a committed jihadist who wanted to inflame anti-American sentiment around the world," according to the Weekly Standard.
Now your first response might be to condemn this as some of the most vile and narcissistic propaganda imaginable, but I think we should follow the logic to its natural conclusion, since the surface barbarism may mask a deeper meaning. If these suicides really do represent "asymmetrical warfare" against the United States, then clearly they must somehow be prevented—and continuing to lock people away without charges in this gulag is demonstrably not going to do the job. No, it's obvious now that the only way to prevent any more of these attacks is either to 1) charge and try every single person currently imprisoned in Guantanamo or 2) release them outright, if there's no evidence against them. And it also follows that anyone who doesn't agree that we should either try or release all of the prisoners at Guantanamo is effectively calling for further "asymmetrical warfare" against the United States which they know full well will "inflame anti-American sentiment around the world," and is therefore guilty of high treason.
Strong words indeed, but they follow naturally from the premises. So rather than criticizing, I think we should applaud these unlikely champions of civil liberties for taking such an uncompromising stand in favor of due process of law.
The Distant Ocean 
As is often the case, Fafblog had the definitive comment back during the 2006 incident:
“Run for your lives – America is under attack! Just days ago three prisoners at Guantanamo Bay committed suicide in a savage assault on America’s freedom to not care about prisoner suicides! …they only committed suicide as part of a diabolical ruse to trick the world into thinking our secret torture camp is the kind of secret torture camp that drives its prisoners to commit suicide! This fiendish attempt to slander the great American institution of the gulag is nothing less than an act of asymmetrical warfare against the United States – a noose is just a suicide bomb with a very small blast radius, people!
…And that’s just the tip of the iceberg! Even as we speak the forces of Islamanazism are infiltrating our network of classified CIA prison camps, rendering themselves to third world dictatorships, and launching unprovoked assaults on innocent American bullets!”
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Let’s do both – consider the statements vile and narcissistic, and also try and/or release the men at Guantanamo.
I really don’t want to give up the vile and narcissistic thingy. It’s good.
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I agree, it’s a false dichotomy. Let’s despise these morally-crippled bastards and do what they didn’t know they were suggesting!
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Given how much the U.S. spends on its military, if it weren’t for asymmetrical warfare, we wouldn’t have any warfare at all.
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Actually, I’ve rethought the “try” element. Since many of these guys were picked up for their “bounty” payoff, they don’t really need trying, do they? Of course, the PTB won’t ever recognize this, as it would fly in the face of all their anti-terrorist burble.
And for a look at the place where some of these man may end up, see this from yesterday’s USA Today:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-06-03-supermax_N.htm
about the only federal supermax prison in the U.S., (possible final spot for some in Guantanamo) in Florence, Colorado. Although the article makes it clear that this is “where the human mind goes to rot,” and that the prisoners are isolated for 23 out of 24 hours per day, there’s nothing to suggest that this is not the way to treat human beings, even the “worst of the worst.” Why not put the article in the lifestyle section instead of the news section? “What’s new in prisons?” Christ, it made me want to put my head in the oven and turn on the gas.
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Catherine: That’s revolting, alright. I’ve never managed to fully understand the eagerness of many Americans for nearly any punishment of evildoers, no matter how draconian. There’s a lot to it, but I think one component is the same lack of empathy that leads them to cheer on our military as it savages yet another country.
SteveB: Given how much the U.S. spends on its military, if it weren’t for asymmetrical warfare, we wouldn’t have any warfare at all.
Good point. To put it another way: all warfare involving the U.S. is by definition asymmetrical.
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SteveB: Given how much the U.S. spends on its military, if it weren’t for asymmetrical warfare, we wouldn’t have any warfare at all.
Good point. To put it another way: all warfare involving the U.S. is by definition asymmetrical
Both good points. Yes, rocks thrown at Israeli soldiers by the Palestinians are just as hurtful as Israeli bombs dropped on Palestinian homes. I can see the symmetry, can’t you?
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Funny you should mention that:
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And several years ago, during the Second Intifada I believe, I heard on Counterspin that some Newsweek writer had addressed an audience in the US, holding up a rock and saying that if they really believed that a rock-throwing Palestinian kid was “unarmed,” then they shouldn’t mind if he threw that rock at them. Someone in the audience got up and said, Sure, go ahead — but you won’t mind us responding by shredding you with gunfire from a US-made attack helicopter, right?
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