This is not a milestone of which Americans can be proud, said Joseph Margulies in the Chicago Tribune. The U.S. military prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, marked its fifth anniversary last week'”and we'd be better off if it never reached its sixth. The Bush administration still insists the facility is necessary, because it keeps dangerous terrorists from launching new attacks on the U.S. But by the Pentagon's own count, only 8 percent of the nearly 400 remaining prisoners'”mostly men scooped up in Afghanistan and Pakistan'”are even alleged to be al Qaida fighters. What a 'œstain on America's honor,' said Helena Cobban in The Christian Science Monitor. Inmates at Guantánamo don't get to plead their case in court, and many have been held in isolation and subjected to harsh interrogation techniques. This 'œcamp of shame' has done enough damage to America's image in the world. It's time to shut it down.
And what would you do with captured terrorists? said Robert Pollack in The Wall Street Journal. Try them in front of a jury of their peers? The fact is, we need a place to hold men our government believes would, given the chance, slaughter us and our children. As for the conditions there, the facts are at odds with the picture 'œusually painted by the press and human-rights activists.' Inmates are well fed (the average detainee has gained 18 pounds); they receive high-quality medical care (all detainees over 50 are offered colonoscopies), and cooperative inmates get rewards such as movies'”Harry Potter is a favorite. In short, our enemies in the war on terror 'œare probably getting better treatment than they deserve.'
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