apparently building a new $750,000 soccer field for the detainees at Gitmo, while at the same time we're cutting 100,000 active-duty troops, proposing to slash Tricare spending & increase fees and cutting the defense budget by some $400BN over the next 10 years? I realize the White House didn't personally decree the new soccer field, but would dearly like to know where the buck stops for this DA decision. There, I feel better already.
Pots of money, if we don't spend it we won't get it next year, etc. etc. I don't hear much bitching about DDA flights at the end of the FY, but the idea is essentially the same.
Wait....what.....the detention facility at Gitmo is still around? Hopey Changey promised it would go away. I saw him sign something in Jan 2008 saying so. This can't be right.
I'm sorry, are you comparing our military pilots actually getting an enjoyable flight to the U.S. government dropping 3/4 of a million dollars so some people who have plotted to kill Americans can enjoy their time dwn at Club Gitmo??? If so then I don't care what pot of money the funding comes from there not even freakin' close to the same things!!!
"We have $750k for <whatever pot of money>. Odds are good that that soccer field will be around long after the detention facility at Gitmo is closed and if we don't spend it, someone else will get the money and we won't get it next FY." "We have 75 extra flight hours. If we don't fly them, someone else will get the hours and we won't get them next FY."
NO, not essentially the same. AYFKM? and hasn't he given it hell trying to do so (much like just about every other president before him). Is bitching about it gonna do anything? No. "Different pots of money" - sure, but come off your high horse and just admit that at a minimum its unseemly to be building these shitheads a new soccer field while we're looking to squeeze every last penny out of retirees and vets.
I'm pissed because it's a soccer field. Build a Baseball field and get the jihadis playing a real game. Who knows.......maybe the Suadis have a great untapped number of 270 hitting shortstops like the Dominicans.
Build a soccer field at a school in north-shit-hole-istan. Dig some wells in subsarahan africa. Here's an idea from out in left field.....build some facilities at a CONUS military instillation. Building those guys a soccer field is not the same as burning flight hours. BTW - if you're still flying DDA at the end of the quarter or FY there is a pretty good chance your OPs guys are dicking it away - most wings (type or airwing) are pulling hours back well before you get to that point. You don't really believe what you're writing do you? I'm betting on the fact that you just enjoy the contrarian role.
So you're OK with a bunch of terroists getting a brand new soccer field, courtesy of the same gov't they are trying to eventually overthrow because if we don't spend this money, then it will be lost... Once again, I'm at a loss trying to undrstand why in today's resources constrained environment when we are kicking people out of the military (not to mention cutting flight hours) you are OK with some terrorists getting a new soccer field? How about spending that MilCon money on improving the barracks for our junior enlisted? How about putting some air conditioning in our working spaces? Maybe a parking garage at the carrier piers so we have ample parking for our personnel. I can think of about 1,000 better things to do with $750K then give these individuals any amenties, much less something better than we provide for our own troops.
Right now the argument against the construction of the field boils down to "terrorists shouldn't get soccer fields," right? 1) Most of them aren't terrorists. 2) Treating POWs (for lack of a better term) well has precedence. 3) The soccer field is only for "highly compliant" detainees.
Perhaps there is a bigger picture that we are not seeing? Maybe this is part of some sort plan to help get the prisoners to open up and give up info? Who knows? But in reality, $750k isn't that much money, and it isn't the difference in anyone getting any flying time and/or people getting shown the door.
From your article: ..."Most were low-level fighters affiliated with al-Qaeda or other groups in Afghanistan..." So they fought alongside AQ? Questions? also "It is important to emphasize that a decision to approve a detainee for transfer does not reflect a decision that a detainee poses no threat or no risk of recidivism," the report says. Call 'em what you want dude....
Can we maybe get a citation for the "outrage?" To the media, the only thing that happens at GITMO is that people become detainees. It was common to hear "Obama is closing GITMO!" when it was really only the camps he was concerned about. Never mind the bajillion other Squid, Coasties and Marines running around there supporting the theater. Before I'd get upset, I'd want to know what the facility is actually being built/used for.
Fuck them. they get fed. They don't get beheaded. More than our guys would get if they got a hold of them.
Why don't you go explain to the families of the couple of thousand American casualties from the last few years that their loved ones weren't killed by terrorist, just low level fighters? You are a tool!
It would by some window air conditioners for my shops that were over 90 degrees in the summer. It will pay for new carpeting in my squadron to replace the carpet that has been in the Navy longer than I have. We could replace some of the windows in the hangar door so now as many birds get in over night and crap on my aircraft. But, if we really need to keep the soccer field construction wokers employed, I've played soccer on a few bases that had really crappy fields. How about we build a new field on one of our bases? While we won't be able to get some big-ticket items, my point is this. Why are we giving our enemies better living conditions than we give our own troops who are fighting said enemy?
Kind of a tangent, but at what point do you draw the line between a terrorist and an enemy combatant?
Because they were not. Terrorism is a form of violence distinct from warfare, usually defined as against civilians, noncombatants, or some other measure of distinction from combat forces. The rank and file Taliban are not terrorists by definition, though some associated groups like the Haqqani network utilize terrorism as a method. The distinction is important, because it recognizes that we see killing civilians, or members of the military not engaged in hostilities (i.e. the Cole or the Khobar Towers bombing) is an illegitimate form of violence separate from warfare. If you wrap 9/11 and an IED of an armed patrol under the same category, then the term terrorism means nothing, and you are legitimating violence against civilians by claiming it's equivalent to violence against combatants. The people at Guantanamo are, for the most part exactly detainees - people we have seized (mostly) on the field of battle, but who we have done a piss-poor job of ascertaining their intelligence value or participation in schemes against the United States. We know there were detainees who were snached up in mass sweeps by the Northern Alliance. We know there were detainees who have secured their release because they were wrongly detained. So labeling them as terrorists and enemies and demanding to punish, mistreat and torture them because some 30% of them had significant ties to Al-Qaeda, is simply wrong. You want to punish them? Ascertain their guilt first. You are a fool.
I think you kind of missed his point, almost reinforced it. His point is that no matter how we (the government/military) define terrorism vs. lawful combatant doesn't matter to the family members of someone who lost their life. Their loved one is still dead, and no matter how detailed a definition of the finer points of the LOAC you go into won't bring them back, and that all they see is that we are building a $750,000 soccer stadium for someone who may or may not been involved in the death of their loved one. Although I didn't realize punishment/mistreatment/torture was equated to NOT building them a new soccer field. Under that auspice - what happens when their cable goes out? Congressional hearings as to why the lack of basic cable is inhumane and torture? Whatever.
