Lost Time

I seem to have messed up my computer again, so it will take some qualified help to get my address box back again, and Links will be hard to access until it is regained. I decided to discuss Bush's great Push to give him the power to try Prisoners by military tribunal. It is of interest basically because the Beltway never talks about the actual Issues, because such clarity might interject genuine American involvement in the political process.

Take this Proposed action: Bush claims the need to throughly interrogate these Prisoners. The Opposition charges there is need to protect the Geneva Conventions. Real Reasons: Bush lacks the evidence to get any of the Defendents convicted under current American Judicial rules. The Opposition wants to see Bush and his gunment fall flat on their faces. The Bush Case against most Internees rests on Rumors, Informers, and innuendo. Hard evidence is lacking, even though Interrogators used all means possible already. Bush wants a controlled Court proceeding, one restricted even in terms of Press Coverage. The Opposition wants to highlight the ineffectiveness of the Bush team.

Are the Internees guilty? Some of them most definitely are guilty, many of them are innocent. No one wants the guilty ones set free, but there are many Innocent among them. How many? This author would expect about half were only in the wrong place at the wrong time, their sole crime was being stupid; lacking good excuse at the time. The Bush administration sees release of any more Internees as bad publicity; remember, they have been locked up a long time, without Charge or provision of basic Civil Liberties. The Innocents have turned into pawns in a political Chess game.

The entire reign of the two later Bush administrations seem a real disappointment to the American people. They entered Washington with such Promise to alter the Beltway format, and yet, Six years brought only massive Public Debt, a stranglehold over the Political Process by Special Interests, and two continuing Wars each of which have occasioned more Casualties since the advertised Cessation of Hostilities than during the Period of politically-defined War. The answer to all Problems of the Bush administrations resides in the immortal Words of Bush himself: We must stay the Course. One has to ask: What is the Course, and why is it worth staying on? lgl