Guantanamo Bay

Let me open this with the statement that I do not believe all the allegations made by Amnesty International of the abuse and torture at Guantanamo Bay, nor do I think that it should be open to journalistic scrutiny. That having been said, I have a more philosophical approach to the issue today. America, when dealing with prisoners, be they convicts or not, must hold itself to a higher standard than the nations with which we are dealing (remember, they still stone women for adultery in some of these places). The State Department should deal swiftly and conclusively with these allegations and at the very least attempt to prevent cruel and unusual punishment (I'm not concerned here with the Geneva convention - remember, most of these countries didn't sign the treaty brokered there, and we're dealing with terrorists, not nations anyway). If we stoop to their level, we are no better than they are, and the entire point of us being over in Iraq is that we have a better system of government (democracy) than they did (totalitarian dictatorship). In America, we do not allow any prisoner to be held without some reasonable suspicion, and none to be held very long without at least an appearance in court to decide whether they are dangerous to the community. I understand that there is the argument that the US Constitution only applies to US citizens, but we are holding persons not merely without a trial, but for years without a charge against them. Not even serial killers in the US get this treatment. In effect, we punish the crime before it has been committed, and we as a nation have strived to never do that. We don't punish thought (trust me, the prisons would be overflowing), we punish action. I am not saying we should let them all go or that we should give them all trials. In fact, if we're so convinced they have information vital to the security of this country, I'm not even above a little bit of coercive interrogation techniques. But the allegations and the pictures coming out of Guantanamo are a bit more serious. Surely we have enough respect for human life because it is human to treat any prisoners with a little common decency. [I do take issue with persons who have problems with Guantanamo but who also advocate on-demand abortion - human life is human life]